Cooking Class

“Back off, Evan,” Lily said, desperately, placing a hand on his chest to make him keep his distance. “I can‟t think when you‟re so close.” She took a step back herself, needing to create some distance of her own, only to find Dylan had come up behind her as reinforcement for Evan. “He‟s right, Lily,” he said, his tone coaxing, compelling. Turning, she looked up into his handsome face, at his firm mouth. She was all too aware of the feel of his long lean body against her. Desire flashed through her. Her own body was on fire. Her nipples ached. “You too,” she said, remembering her earlier thought, “You‟re just as bad. I can‟t think with the two of you ganging up on me.” Saying those words was a mistake, she knew it the minute she said them. The mental image sent another flash of heat racing through her, her thighs instantly damp from the flood of moisture between them. Color rose in her face. Evan jumped on it. Suddenly he smiled and in that moment he looked wolfish, or devilish, and she knew she‟d lost whatever advantage she‟d had. She‟d given herself away. He knew her too well. “Can‟t you?” he asked softly and the intensity in his voice brought her back around to face him. His eyes flashed. Like a wolf to the kill, he closed on her, the look in his eyes both exhilarating and terrifying. Something in those simple words, in that look, in the heat in his eyes, sent another rush of excitement through her. She nearly moaned, caught it back just in time. She took a step back, only to find another wolf behind her. Dylan. His eyes were intent. He‟d caught her slip too, her inadvertent admission of attraction, desire for both of them.

Praise for Demon's Kiss "Wow. I loved, loved, loved this book. I wasn‟t sure what to expect when I read the blurb of this book but what I got was exciting, fun, and unique." Happily Every After Reviews (Five teacups and a Recommended Read) “I really loved the first book in the Demon Allure Series.” The Romance Studio (Four hearts)

Special Delivery "I was glued to Special Delivery from the first page..." Veiled Secrets Reviews (five dragons) "Two words for V.J. Devereaux are 'Wow' and 'Awesome' for Special Delivery. This book rocked all the way and blew my mind away." Happily Ever After Reviews (5 Teacups)

"Hot sex, Hot man, and a plot? Makes for a pretty good read" Seriously Reviewed (16.5)

Cherry's Jubilee "I loved the characters and the way the story was written. I did not want to leave them when the story was over." Night Owl Reviews Top Pick "HOLY SMOKES!!!!! I am on fire!" Seriously Reviewed (18) "This story is outrageously HOT!" and "I would not recommend this story to anyone who doesn't have a toy chest, and their significant other handy! I have a feeling you will need both just to get through this book. Cherry‟s Jubilee is definitely a sexy treat!" Just Erotic Romance Reviews (4.5 stars)

Cooking Class By V. J. Devereaux

Cooking Class Copyright © 2010 Valerie Douglas aka V. J. Devereaux Cover art by V. J. Douglas With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means existing without written permission from author. Warning: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means, electronic or print, without the publisher‟s permission. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000. (http://www.fbi.gov/ipr/). Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material. Your support of the author‟s rights is appreciated. This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author‟s imagination and used fictitiously. License Notes This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you‟re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Discover other titles by Valerie Douglas Fantasy The Coming Storm A Convocation of Kings Heart of the Gods Servant of the Gods Romance

Dirty Politics Directors Cut Irish Fling Lucky Charm Picture Perfect Nike‟s Wings The Last Resort

As V. J. Devereaux Available through Ellora‟s Cave Publishing Night Moves Cherry‟s Jubilee Special Delivery Demon‟s Kiss

Dedication To Erin, Anne Marie, Elizabeth and all my readers, thanks so much! To the First Responders and EMTs everywhere, with my thanks for the lives you save every day. My heartfelt thanks for the one you saved for me. And, of course and always, most of all to my beloved and patient husband (who says I‟m schizophrenic but it‟s like having a different wife every night.)

Chapter One The door at the front of the restaurant opened. Lily looked around the dining room, puzzled. All the students for her cooking class had already arrived and were hard at work. They were clustered around the small gas burners and simmering pots and pans at the utility station. She held the class once a week while the restaurant kitchen was cleaned. The room was redolent with the aromas of brown sugar, cinnamon, raspberries, all the slightly sweet scents of the dessert sauces the students were preparing as the project for the night‟s class. When the restaurant was open it was the station was where the staff carved prime rib or prepared specialty desserts. She‟d turned the lights up to full so her students could see what they were doing but the brightness tended to cast the rest of the room in darkness. She looked up and out into the rest of the room, slightly dazzled by the intensity of the lights set over the worktable. Opening her mouth, she started to tell the newcomers the restaurant was closed.

Until she saw who it was. Her breath caught, shuddered in her chest at the sight of the man who had just walked into her restaurant. The old line from the movie Casablanca suddenly ran through her mind. Of all the gin joints in all the world… It couldn‟t be him. Her heart twisted, the pain surprising, catching her off guard. She couldn‟t be seeing who she thought she saw. At the sight of her students, though, he and his companion stepped quickly into the shadows at the front of the room and she shut her mouth just as swiftly. If her students caught sight of that all too familiar face or she‟d said his equally familiar name she‟d have had a riot on her hands at the very least. Clearly, the two men realized that as well. A few heads turned to look but they were as blinded by the lights as she‟d been. Mentally she shook herself and redirected her attention to her students. Cooking was a joy, one she loved to share. She loved to pass that pleasure on to others, to share her passion. A kitchen was the one place she‟d always felt comfortable as a child. Surrounded by all those amazing aromas she‟d listened to the cooks talk while she waited for her mother to finish serving tables. That love was the reason she taught this class but cooking could also be dangerous. The sugar in these sauces would cling and burn if spilled. She couldn‟t afford to be distracted around them or around the gas burners and the little pots of fuel. Somehow she managed to unscramble her senses enough to walk her students through the remainder of the class despite the way her pulse hammered wildly. It was impossible. He couldn‟t be here. It had to be her imagination but all she had to do was look into the shadows to see the outline of that familiar, distinctive face and she knew it wasn‟t. Those cheekbones didn‟t belong to any other man. Most of her students had been instructed to park at the back of the restaurant but there were always one or two who forgot, which was why she‟d left the front door unlocked. With reminders to them about where to park, she escorted her students through the now clean kitchen, deliberately bypassing the two men who waited in the shadows at the front. On the way back, she poured herself a steadying glass of wine, took a sip then straightened her shoulders and walked back out into the restaurant. Her restaurant. Cavanaugh‟s Place. This was her place, her home ground. Even so, for a moment, facing the two men, she didn‟t know what to do or say. She‟d never imagined this, not in her wildest dreams. Her heart was in her throat but she wouldn‟t show it. She didn‟t dare. “Hello, Evan,” she managed, finally. To her own ears her voice sounded surprisingly even. The two men stepped out of the shadows. Her heart wrenched and her breath caught at the sight of them. Of him. Master Chef Evan Taylor, enfant terrible of the kitchen, the host of his own cable cooking show and the man with whom she‟d been madly and silently in love, although she‟d never said those words to him. In that she‟d hardly been alone. The other man she knew only from seeing him in television interviews with Evan―Dylan Bryant, the director of Evan‟s show. For the moment, though, her gaze locked on Evan. It had been so long since she‟d seen him. The sight of him rendered her silent. Nothing had changed. He was still gorgeous, one of the most handsome men she‟d ever known and even to say that was an understatement.

From the tumble of dark hair that spilled over his forehead to his sculpted features―perfect cheekbones, long-lashed blue eyes as clear as a highland lake and that incredible mouth―he was simply beautiful. His face was incredibly expressive. It could transform in a breath from cool elegance to fierce and furious Scottish laird, seemingly barely tamed, especially when he went into one of his rages. Which was frequently. One of the most famous chefs in the world, he was enormously talented, incredibly creative, brilliant and volatile. Had the thousands of his female fans known how well she‟d once known him Lily would‟ve been the envy of them all. She‟d once been blessed to see him with his shirt off―a quick impatient change of clothing in the back of his restaurant for a charity event―and could testify the photos taken by the paparazzi didn‟t do him justice. His chest was more perfectly muscled than it appeared in those pictures, his abs lean and firm, utterly delectable. Her mouth had watered and her pussy had dampened instantly just at the sight. He was also as passionate, fierce and dedicated as he appeared on TV. Like those thousands of other women, Lily had adored and admired him. Wanted him. If she was honest with herself she still did. The instant she‟d seen him her panties had gone damp and her nipples had tingled. Attraction had never been the issue between them. She never thought she‟d see him again, not here, not anywhere. Certainly not in her restaurant and yet here he was. “Lily,” he said in response to her greeting. His voice was as deep as she remembered, slightly accented, as rich as scotch and just as warm. Just the sound of it made her heart twist. It was ridiculous. The last time she‟d seen him he‟d shouted at her to leave, to get out. So she had. Leaving had cost her everything, had broken her heart but she‟d done it. She‟d had to, and not just because he‟d ordered it. The other man held his hand out hastily to cover the awkward moment. “Ms. Cavanaugh, I‟m Dylan Bryant. I‟m a huge fan of your cookbooks.” He took her hand in his, his handshake warm, not too firm, not too soft. There was strength in it, and control. “It‟s a pleasure to meet you,” he said and smiled. “Evan‟s told me a lot about you.” She looked up into a pair of warm eyes the color of fine sherry―a deep rich gold. Her body flushed in response to the intent look in them as his hand tightened lightly around hers. To her surprise, she found Dylan Bryant as intriguing as Evan. It shouldn‟t have been so unexpected, after all he was an incredibly attractive man with an engaging on-screen personality. And that was before she‟d met him in person. “I know who you are Mr. Bryant,” she said, suddenly all too aware of her hand in his. Ever since they‟d announced the series the show had been Lily‟s private obsession. Although she wouldn‟t have admitted it to anyone she‟d recorded every episode and watched every interview she could find. It was her private obsession. For the first time and in Evan‟s presence, Lily found herself distracted by and attracted to a man other than Evan. If someone had told her it could happen she‟d have said it was impossible. She‟d tried for years, unsuccessfully. Tall and blond, Dylan Bryant was a handsome man in his own right, though, his thick golden hair straight where Evan‟s was wavy, his features more refined, less craggy, than Evan‟s.

Judging by the hint of muscle, the lean abdomen revealed by the drape of his casual polo shirt, he was just as beautiful underneath. There was something about him, though, something she‟d only caught glimpses of in those TV interviews. In person and up close Dylan Bryant had a charm, a quiet intensity and graciousness that enveloped her, wrapped her in warmth. She‟d wondered how he handled Evan‟s volatility. Now she knew. He was the balance to it. Dylan was the calm, Evan the storm. Until she‟d met Evan, she‟d never believed in instant attraction. Now there was Dylan. Maybe the attraction to Evan had worn off? Just a little, enough for her to breathe? Maybe enough for her to finally be able to move on after all these years? Lily glanced up into Evan‟s glacier blue eyes, into his beautifully sculpted face and her breath caught as it always did. No. It hadn‟t diminished one bit. “Call me Lily, please,” she murmured in reply as she looked back to Dylan and wondered what Evan could possibly have said about her to him. She couldn‟t imagine why they were here or what it was they wanted. “Lily, then,” Dylan Bryant said, his tone even, with only the faintest trace of a southern accent. “Call me Dylan. Shall we sit for a moment?” He gestured at one of the tables. With a shake of her head, she said, softly, “No, thank you, I prefer to stand. What can I do for you, Mr. Bryant?” She turned away, needing to put distance between herself and them, went to the gas burners and shut off the gas. The little pots of fuel she left burning, it was better to let them burn themselves out. There was nothing but water in the pans of water above them in any case, to keep the sauces in the bottles warm and liquid so they would drizzle properly, so nothing would be harmed. “Dylan,” he repeated. “Actually, I, we, would like to offer you a job.” Lily blinked. “I beg your pardon,” she said, bewildered. “I have a job. This one. This restaurant is mine.” She wasn‟t saying no, she was trying to understand. “I know that. We want to offer you another one,” he said. “I want you to work for me. I‟m the director of Evan‟s television show.” “What? I know that, but…,” she said, confused. It didn‟t make any sense. He couldn‟t have said what she‟d thought he‟d said. Evan didn‟t even like her. They had always fought. She looked at Evan again, pushed back the ache around her heart. A thousand memories raced through her mind. Including the last, disastrous one, the argument that had ended everything. “Why me?” she blurted, although it came out calmly enough. Dylan Bryant smiled wryly, jerked his thumb in Evan‟s direction. “Because you‟re the only one with guts enough to go toe-to-toe with the big bad wolf there,” he said, “from what I understand.” For a moment she paused, the description so apt she fought a smile. Big bad wolf. Evan could definitely be all of that. He could huff, and puff and blow you right down if you let him. If anyone should know that it was her. He‟d nearly done it, nearly bullied her into

submission as he had with everyone else who worked for him but as much as she admired him she wouldn‟t let him do to her what he‟d done to them. She didn‟t dare look at Evan to see what he was thinking, although she wanted to and then she did because she needed to know. Some traitorous part of her heart wanted to know that he wanted her to be part of this. “How do you feel about this, Evan?” she asked. When they had worked together it had always been Cavanaugh and Chef Taylor, or merely Chef, never by name. For the first time since that initial meeting of the eyes he looked at her. Memories shimmered in the air between them, she could almost feel them. Dylan Bryant said hastily, “He agreed to it.” She looked at him, kept her voice even, her tone polite, almost gentle. “I didn‟t ask you. I asked him. And I want an answer.” Lily turned to look at Evan. “It‟s a great opportunity, Lily,” Evan said, evenly for him, his expression unreadable for once. “One you deserve. You‟d be back in my kitchen, though. As my sous chef again.” “And more,” Dylan added hurriedly. “You‟ll have carte blanche. We‟ll promote your cookbooks. We want it to be a clash of styles, of attitudes. The network will be officially hands off. Whatever happens in the kitchen between you two happens. You even have an escape clause if you want to take it.” “I have a job,” she repeated, still trying to take in what they were saying. She felt like an idiot, but they couldn‟t possibly be asking her what she thought they were asking.

Chapter Two Evan hadn‟t known what to expect, seeing Lily again. He hadn‟t known what it would be like or what it would do to him when he did. He hadn‟t known that everything he‟d once felt for her would come rushing back. He thought he was over her. He hadn‟t considered that time would‟ve refined her, that she would‟ve become even more lovely. Her eyes were the same long-lashed doe brown but her mouth looked softer than he remembered. Her hair was the same rich shade, the color of red oak, wavy and long. She‟d always worn it tucked up when she was working but he‟d loved the sight of it when she let it down at the end of the night. Nor had he forgotten how much he‟d loved to look at her body, the curve of her breasts, her perfect ass. He hadn‟t expected his heart to clench when he saw her or his cock to ache. It was a shock to find he wanted her just as much now as he had then, if not more. It was even more of a shock to find that he did want her to do the show, wanted to watch her flare back at him, to fight with him as no one else did or dared to do. She‟d never been afraid of him. He could also see in her eyes that she remembered how it had ended. He remembered, too. The shouting, the fury, both spiked by his need, his unspoken desire. She had been his employee, untouchable. The words spoken by both of them echoed in his mind. And the pain he didn‟t dare show, then or now, he turned it to anger instead. “You always said you would trust your people, Lily,” he snapped and watched her brown eyes flash in response. “Train them, trust them and leave them to do their jobs, isn‟t that what you said? What you wanted me to do?” Lily‟s temper flared. It was too reminiscent of their last argument, back in the days when she‟d been his sous chef, fresh out of the Culinary Institute and just back from France. She‟d trained with the best, she‟d known her job. The argument where she‟d walked out on him, where he‟d told her to leave and not come back. She had. The pain was as fresh as the day she‟d left. “Don‟t you dare throw my words back at me, Evan,” she snapped. “Don‟t you dare! I do trust my people.” What she didn‟t trust was him, as he hadn‟t trusted her. “What do you want from me, Lily? I won‟t beg,” he shouted in return and turned on Dylan, throwing up his hands in frustration. “You see why this won‟t work?” “Actually,” Dylan said as he watched, “from where I stand it‟s working just fine.” In fact, it was brilliant. Great drama. Dylan loved it, every moment of it. Lily Cavanaugh wasn‟t afraid of anyone. He didn‟t intimidate her and she certainly wasn‟t afraid of Evan, shouting right back at him. No one shouted at Evan. Except Lily Cavanaugh. Neither would back down an inch and both were magnificent in their fury. Evan always was, of course, but Lily had been the unknown. Until now. But God, as a director, watching them? They were both beautiful, incredible. Hot and sexy. With that thick, wavy golden brown hair, Lily was fire while Evan was ice. They‟d steam up the screen between them. It would be great TV. It seemed Evan had left one little detail out when they‟d talked. He hadn‟t told Dylan he‟d been in love with Lily Cavanaugh. That he still was.

Knowing Evan it wasn‟t surprising he hadn‟t mentioned it. Evan hated to admit to a weakness. Seeing Lily Cavanaugh, seeing them together, Dylan knew the attraction between them had been nearly inevitable. As was Dylan‟s own attraction to her. That wasn‟t surprising either, considering he and Evan shared tastes in so much, including women. It was one of the reasons he and Evan had become not just professional partners but close friends. But then he‟d been half in love with her even before that. The pictures on her book jackets hadn‟t done her justice. Truth be told, Dylan had had the hots for her after seeing her on a few interview shows. With those delicate features she wasn‟t movie-star beautiful, instead she had an approachable girl-next-door wholesome loveliness that was far more enduring, a face middle America would be comfortable with, would fall in love with instantly the way he had. Character with enough attitude to please the folks on the East and West coasts. Enough attitude to stick up for herself with Evan. Those seemingly soft doe-brown eyes flashing fire was so unexpected. He hadn‟t known who she was then. She‟d been quick, clever and funny, just what Evan‟s show needed. Dylan didn‟t have a problem admitting that watching them go at each other turned him on. He liked watching, he‟d always been a bit of a voyeur. He also loved the look of her, loved the graceful lines of her, the swell of her breast, the neat indentation of her waist. Her dress draped her perfectly. Her thick, lovely hair was caught back in a long tail by a dark gold ribbon. It was just the right length to wrap around his hand and drag her head back so he could feast on her throat, the ripe fullness of those breasts. He couldn‟t take his eyes off her, off that firm, rounded ass as she suddenly turned and walked away. It was as if she‟d come too close to the heat, drawn like a moth to the flame and then fleeing it. His gaze caressed her shapely legs, made even more so by the high heels of the sandals she wore. It was far too easy to imagine her naked but for those sandals, bent over so he could run a hand over the firm curves of that bottom and then between them. Desire flared. To his surprise, given that in reality she was almost a stranger to him, he found himself wanting to follow that lush cleavage with his lips and tongue. His body went tight and his cock stiffened against his zipper. Suddenly he was glad they were still standing, hoping his loose khakis would hide the most visible sign of his attraction. This was no way to conduct these negotiations but he couldn‟t quite seem to make himself stop. A glance at Evan, at the look in his eyes, was enough to tell Dylan he was having the same problem. Evan didn‟t need to see Dylan‟s look to know what he thought, he‟d known from the minute they‟d walked in the door the affect Lily would have on his friend. It was the same effect she‟d had on him from the first moment he‟d seen her. He‟d wanted her then almost instantly, from the moment she‟d walked into his restaurant that first time. What he hadn‟t known was how she felt about him, what she wanted. In the end it was probably best he hadn‟t. Until that first meeting, he‟d only seen her bona fides, her resume and recommendations. Many people would‟ve considered his invitation an honor but in her case and with her qualifications he couldn‟t have not taken her. He‟d never seen her, not even a picture. He hadn‟t thought he needed to, he wasn‟t hiring for looks but for talent. Not until she responded to his invitation to work with him and she‟d knocked him off his feet.

The dress she‟d worn that day had been silk, purchased in Paris. He‟d paid for his le Cordon Bleu training by modeling in Europe so he could tell the quality by the cut, the lines. He also knew she‟d just returned from studying cooking there. All the same, while her dress hadn‟t chosen to show off her body it still had. To his astonishment, he‟d had to fold his arms to keep from touching her. The attraction had been instantaneous. Love at first sight, something he‟d never believed in until that moment. And then he‟d had to fight it every minute of the day. To know she shared his passion for cooking hadn‟t made it any easier. Even worse, to his eyes she looked sexy even in kitchen whites, her apron tied loosely around her trim waist to reveal her curves and her lush hair tucked neatly up to reveal the slender curve of her neck. Having worked around models, Evan had been relieved she wasn‟t model-pretty, afraid to crack a smile or frown for fear of leaving wrinkles. She was lovely instead, with an open, oval face and perfectly arched brows above those big beautiful long-lashed brown eyes he‟d loved. She‟d had a ready laugh that lit and warmed those eyes and curved that firm, finely shaped mouth. He would learn those eyes could also flash fire and that like Dylan she would be one of the few who wasn‟t afraid of him, who didn‟t flinch in the face of his rages. He hadn‟t known how much that would matter to him. Kitchens were hot places, so like many she dressed lightly beneath her whites, in thin cotton t-shirts and long yoga-style pants that clung to her body. Half the time he‟d found himself rigid beneath his slacks, trying to resist stroking himself when she bent over to check an oven or stretched to reach something. Like him, Lily was a sensualist, he‟d seen that the first moment she‟d closed her eyes to inhale the aroma of a dish or savored the taste and texture of a sauce on her tongue. Cooking was a sensual experience, an exercise not merely in taste but aroma and texture, the appearance of the food on the plate, the scent of it filling your nose, the feel of it or the sauce in your mouth, the smoothness or creaminess of it, the slide of it over the tongue. All he had to do was watch to know she shared that too. She‟d had a talent, a gift with sauces, but he could have dropped her into any position in the restaurant and she would have done as well, as any great chef could. She was incredible. He‟d wanted her then, intensely. Except she was an employee, untouchable both by law and by custom. It would destroy the discipline in his kitchen. It had the potential to destroy everything he‟d worked to achieve How many times had he seen it tear apart even the most well-trained staff? They always knew. He‟d had to remind himself of that again and again. The moment they‟d walked into her restaurant though, and he‟d seen her again, seen her hair glow under the lights, those incredible eyes, he knew he still wanted her. If anything he wanted her even more. She‟d been smiling when they first stepped inside, those lovely lips had parted when she‟d looked up and he‟d wanted to kiss them even then. In that moment he knew he‟d been in love with her then and he was still in love with her now. “Evan‟s right,” she said, her words jarring him out of his reverie. “This won‟t work. It can‟t work.” The words were shocking, too reminiscent of that last argument. Seeing her again brought it all back, the need, the desire, and his anger. In his fury that day he‟d shouted at her to get out. The instant he‟d said the words he‟d wanted to take them back but he couldn‟t, not in front of his staff.

Instead he‟d stayed silent and let her go. He could still see her expression in his mind‟s eye, her face paling, her eyes wide and shocked as she looked back at him. Then she‟d thrown her apron in his face, turned her back on him and walked away. The pain of it had stunned him then and infuriated him now. “Are you afraid of me, Lily? Didn‟t you say you weren‟t?” he lashed back. Her brown eyes flashed with anger and hurt. All the emotions Lily had felt that day came rushing back, as her dreams were crushed and with them the knowledge she‟d never see him again. She hadn‟t been wrong to say what she had, she still felt she‟d been right but that didn‟t stop the hurt. She hadn‟t been afraid of him. She just hadn‟t thought she‟d lose him, lose her job and threaten her dreams. “Damn it, Evan,” Lily said, flaring back at him. “Stop using my words against me. It‟s not that I‟m afraid of you.” “Then what is it,” he snapped, “if you‟re not afraid of me?” Desperately, Lily kept her mouth shut even as her heart said, I want you to love me, but she couldn‟t say those words. That wasn‟t why he was there, as a traitorous part of her had hoped. Into that brief awkward silence between them Dylan spoke, dropped a figure, the amount of money the network was willing to pay her. She turned, looked at him incredulously. The number stunned her. “Per year,” Dylan added, quietly, watching her. Dylan knew what that kind of money would mean―financial freedom, independence from the bank that held her mortgage―and he wasn‟t afraid to use it against her. He wanted this now almost as much as he sensed Evan did. From his inquiries he knew she was making money from both the restaurant and her cookbooks but she wasn‟t rolling in dough. He‟d done a thorough background check on her and even Evan had been surprised by what the private investigators found. They‟d been more alike than they‟d guessed, all three of them. Like he and Evan, Lily had grown up rough, struggling. From the reports they learned that at the age of twelve she‟d bussed her mother‟s tables at a local restaurant and been paid under the table. That kind of thing hadn‟t been unusual in her hometown, a struggling rust belt village tucked away in the mountains. The money was desperately needed at home. A single mom, her mother had three other children at home, all boys. Lily hadn‟t needed help with cooking, though. She‟d had a passion, a gift, she could cook like no one‟s business. Paying for her schooling was another matter. Vocational school had gotten her a scholarship to the Culinary Institute of America, the nation‟s premier cooking school. Working after class, on weekends and on holidays, saving every penny, she‟d scraped together enough to get there. The CIA had arranged for her to go to France and the Cordon Bleu chefs there. She‟d studied with them for more than a year. Born poor, trading on his looks although he hated it, Evan had come over to the States from Scotland for the opportunities. He‟d traded on his face and modeled to raise the money to buy his restaurant. Then he tried to shed that image while he built a reputation as a chef. Few people now remembered how he‟d started although the pictures were still out there and popped up from time to time.

Dylan had grown up in the bayous of Louisiana and worked hard to get rid of the soft southern accent that made some people think he was stupid. He‟d held on to the manners and the sensibility, though. That was something else they shared, a determination not to forget their roots. Where they had come from. Those memories of coming up the hard way were why Evan worked with so many charities, he remembered. Like them, Lily was a poor kid made good, she‟d fought and struggled to get where she wanted to be. Yet she hadn‟t bowed down and taken what everyone dished out. When push came to shove she‟d kept her pride, her dignity. She‟d walked away from everything Evan could offer and all the advantages he could give her. She‟d made it the hard way on her own terms. Dylan respected that. So, whether he admitted it or not, did Evan. Dylan watched her face as the numbers clicked in her head. It was a lot of money. With a glance at Evan, Lily reflected that deciding would have been easier if he wasn‟t so damn beautiful. If she didn‟t care so much about him. In her heart of hearts she couldn‟t be certain it wasn‟t because she wanted another chance to be with him, to fool herself into thinking there might be something between them. She couldn‟t risk everything she‟d worked for on that. To have two such gorgeous men gang up on her, if not quite literally―mentally she rolled her eyes at the visual that thought produced even as her body went hot and her panties went damp―was just a little distracting. That didn‟t help. She needed to concentrate. It was a lot of money, too much money for her to walk away from easily. In a year rather than another ten years her restaurant could be truly hers. She could consider making some of the improvements she hadn‟t been able to justify, not yet. Lily chanced another look at Evan from beneath her lashes. He was even more beautiful up close. His energy, his passion, charged the very air around him. She remembered the passion and the fury very well. And damn if he wasn‟t even more beautiful, more sexy, when he was angry, raging at her. As always, just looking at him made her heart beat a little faster, her nipples go tight within the lace confines of her bra. In her mind ‟s eye, it was far too easy to picture her fingers spread across the magnificent chest she‟d once only glimpsed. Her pussy dampened and flexed just at the thought. She‟d always wanted him, wanted that passion unleashed on her, beneath her, on top of her. That thought wasn‟t helping either. She smothered a sigh of frustration. What did help was remembering the last time she‟d seen him, the harsh words, his parting shot at her. It had hurt then. It hurt now. “If you leave now, your career is over,” he had shouted. “You know it and I know it. I‟ll have someone to replace you in a day.” The words had stung, especially the last ones. Worse because she knew it was true. People would line up to take her place. What she hadn‟t wanted to admit was that in her heart of hearts she‟d wanted him to want her to stay. It hurt even more that he hadn‟t. Never once had he indicated otherwise.

In the end, he‟d been wrong. Her career hadn‟t been over, it had just been a lot harder for her to achieve her dreams. Far more importantly though, she‟d proven she didn‟t need him, didn‟t need his stamp of approval on her career. Everything she‟d done, from building her restaurant to establishing her reputation to publishing her cookbooks, was accomplished on her own merit. Not because she‟d trained with Evan Taylor. Turning on her heel, she looked Dylan Bryant in the eye and threw up her hands. “Yes, it‟s a wonderful opportunity. I can‟t deny that. I have to ask you, though, do I look like a masochist?” she demanded. She waved a hand at Evan. “Did he tell you what happened? Why I left?” If he didn‟t remember, she did, all too well. Known for his demanding perfectionism, Evan was one of the premier chefs in the world. Working with him was considered an incredible opportunity and she knew it. To be invited to work in his kitchen was a privilege, a divine opportunity to work with the Master. For her it had been. His passion, his perfectionism, was well known. So was his temperament. She could have, would have, taken the abuse if it had been about her cooking but it hadn‟t. When he went into one of his towering rages though, he was as likely to target anyone, indiscriminately shouting at everyone. She‟d been used to it she‟d thought, until she had to ask a question in the middle of one of his tirades and he‟d gone off on her. Flinging out a hand in fury, he‟d knocked the full plate from her hands. The entire plate would‟ve had to have been redone, not an easy matter. It was an accident, she‟d known it even then, but it had been the last straw and she‟d exploded right back at him. It had been a shouting match to end all shouting matches. Even worse, in the face of that rage somehow she‟d been oddly turned on by his intensity. She always was. Some part of her had wondered even then what it would be like to have all that passion wrapped around her, his mouth fierce on hers, his body hammering against hers. Perhaps that had been part of it, that wild attraction. She‟d been in love with him even then, knowing that it was stupid, that half his staff was obsessed with him, but it was especially so when he paraded one gorgeous model after another through the restaurant on the way to one event or another. Like rock stars and actors, dating models was a part of his mystique. He didn‟t seem to care about any of them. Even now she kicked herself mentally for it. She never forgot the stunned, furious look on his face when she‟d thrown her apron in it and walked out. Now, remembering, she turned on her heel and walked away again, needing distance, and looked around the room instead. This was her place, her restaurant. Hers and the bank‟s. She‟d worked hard for it, built it, established a reputation in the city and in her field. The décor was French Provencal with a modern edge and without the kitschy elements so the look was antique but clean. An outer patio allowed diners to eat al fresco if they chose. A fine, nearly invisible netting draped above and around the dining area to keep insects at bay but allow a nice view of the surrounding mountains in the daytime and the stars at night. Two days a week the restaurant was closed except for special events and her cooking classes while the kitchen was cleaned from top to bottom.

The restaurant was hers but the money Evan‟s show was willing to pay her would give her opportunities she‟d only dreamed of. She‟d be a fool not to consider it. Idly, she dipped a finger in one of the sauces, brought it to her lips and tasted it before she tapped the tops over the pots of fuel with a fingernail to put them out. The sauce was quite good if she said so herself, a reminder she was a capable chef in her own right, with a line of best selling cookbooks to prove it. Watching her walk away, Dylan mentally shook his head in response to her question. No, he didn‟t think she was a masochist. He thought she was incredible. Seeing her go toe-to-toe with Evan, standing nearly a foot shorter than he was, undaunted, her eyes brilliant, that sexy mouth snarling back at him, had been a surprising turn on. Watching her lick the sugary sauce from her finger, though, the sweet scent filling the room, had sent a shot of heat straight to his groin and brought his cock sharply to attention. Not that it hadn‟t been there already. He didn‟t want to think how close he‟d come to missing this opportunity. They had been out at a club, he and Evan, both a little drunk when Dylan had carefully brought up the subject of making changes to the show. He was worried, the ratings had dropped a little although Evan personally was as popular as ever, especially with the female fans. Nevertheless, the network execs were getting on Dylan to make some changes, spice things up, revive the excitement of the first season. Maybe find a way to bring in some male viewers. “How the hell do I do that, Evan?” Dylan had complained after his fourth or fifth martini, “When you scare the crap out of everyone?” It was nothing more than the truth. The restaurant where they did the filming, rebuilt and redesigned for the show, had constant turnover. Once or twice they‟d even had to replace a cameraman or show staffer after Evan had gone off on them. No one at the home office complained. The fans scarcely noticed. In fact, some cheered every departure. Others took odds on who would go next. Some of them were nuts. The posts on social networking sites were astonishing, some of which were mind-boggling. It was amazing what people would post publically. Evan‟s e-mail was incredible. One or two of them were damn scary. Some of the women sent pictures. Explicit pictures. To Evan‟s shock and fury, he‟d even attracted a stalker who left black roses for him, keyed his car on one occasion and flattened the tires on another. It had gotten so bad Dylan had moved into Evan‟s apartment just to give his volatile star a buffer. “Not everyone,” Evan had said in answer to Dylan‟s statement, although the question had been rhetorical. “You‟re not the only one who isn‟t afraid of me.” That had gotten Dylan‟s attention. “You mean there‟s someone besides me who told you to fuck off?” he‟d asked incredulously, intrigued. Staring down into his glass, Evan had said, “Yes.” “Damn, that guy had balls,” Dylan had said in admiration. “I have to meet him.” “Her. Girl,” Evan had muttered, his expression dark. “Woman…” Dylan had been speechless, completely floored. He‟d goggled drunkenly at Evan for all of sixty seconds and then blurted loudly enough for the whole room to hear, “A chick? A girl told you to fuck off?” The Great Evan Taylor. In Dylan‟s inebriated state the thought was amazing. Evan had stared silently into his glass.

Sitting back Dylan had looked at Evan in astonishment. “A girl. I gotta meet this girl,” he‟d said. “Who is she? What‟s her name?” “Lily Cavanaugh.” The name had sounded oddly romantic and a little familiar. Then it had come to him. She was the girl with the cookbooks he‟d seen making the rounds on the talk shows, the hot one who‟d attended the CIA and studied in France. There had been a moment of silence as those facts passed through his alcohol-impaired mind. Then, “She‟s a chef?” he‟d said in astonishment. Not just a chef but a Culinary Institute of America certified, Paris trained Cordon Bleu chef. That was all it had taken. She was perfect. “Tell me everything,” he‟d said. Evan, his eyes on his glass, had. What Dylan hadn‟t anticipated was the real Lily Cavanaugh, the impact she would have on him once he met her. It was one thing to admire her on some talk show, another to meet her, to listen to her as she taught her students or watch her verbally spar with Evan. What he hadn‟t anticipated was how much he would want her. And he did want her. Intensely.

Chapter Three “It is the opportunity of a lifetime, Lily,” Evan said, his tone determined, at his most persuasive. “You know it and I know it. It‟s a chance to establish your reputation for all the world to see, to promote your cookbooks. You‟d be the sous chef but the network has already said it‟ll give you free rein. You‟ll be able to say what you want, do what you want. If you want to walk you can do that, too. I made sure of it.” Lily turned, to find him standing right behind her, so close. She looked up into his glacier blue eyes, at his beautiful sexy mouth and a rush of heat shot to her core so quickly her head spun even as her pussy tightened. In an instant, she was breathless. He was too close. She could smell his cologne, feel the warmth of his body against hers. “Back off, Evan,” she said, desperately, placing a hand on his chest to make him keep his distance. “I can‟t think when you‟re so close.” She took a step back herself, needing to create some distance of her own, only to find Dylan had come up behind her as reinforcement for Evan. “He‟s right, Lily,” he said, his tone coaxing, compelling. Turning, she looked up into his handsome face, at his firm mouth. She was all too aware of the feel of his long lean body against her. Desire flashed through her. Her own body was on fire. Her nipples ached. “You too,” she said, remembering her earlier thought, “You‟re just as bad. I can‟t think with the two of you ganging up on me.” Saying those words was a mistake, she knew it the minute she said them. The mental image sent another flash of heat racing through her, her thighs instantly damp from the flood of moisture between them. Color rose in her face. Evan jumped on it. Suddenly he smiled and in that moment he looked wolfish, or devilish, and she knew she‟d lost whatever advantage she‟d had. She‟d given herself away. He knew her too well. “Can‟t you?” he asked softly and the intensity in his voice brought her back around to face him. His eyes flashed. Like a wolf to the kill, he closed on her, the look in his eyes both exhilarating and terrifying. Something in those simple words, in that look, in the heat in his eyes, sent another rush of excitement through her. She nearly moaned, caught it back just in time. She took a step back, only to find another wolf behind her. Dylan. His eyes were intent. He‟d caught her slip too, her inadvertent admission of attraction, desire for both of them. Reaching out, he tugged the ribbon from her hair slowly to free it. She shivered but couldn‟t bring herself to stop him. He drew her hair back from her neck, her shoulder. Warm lips caressed her skin. She trembled. “So soft,” he murmured, against the curve of her throat. Then she did moan, she couldn‟t help it. Her pussy went damp. She looked at Evan and saw him smile a little. Evan cupped her cheek, slid his fingers into her hair. It had been a revelation to hear those words, to see the look in her eyes and watch her lips part.

She did want him. Every nerve in his body came alive to know that, to know she wanted him too, and that he could shake that control of hers. His cock was already hard. Her presence, even after nearly a decade, had done that. Knowing the attraction between them was mutual? That he made her as crazy as she made him? His cock was rigid, throbbing. To know she felt the same way about Dylan? That was something he‟d never considered. Yet the idea turned him on more than he could believe. Neither he nor Dylan had ever mentioned it, spoken about their desire to share one woman and there was no need to talk about it now. It was almost instinctual. He just went with it. He watched as her mouth softened and went loose as Dylan‟s lips brushed over her shoulder. She trembled. Seeing that only made Evan harder. Taking her soft mouth with his just seemed to close the circuit between the three of them, sent electricity racing through him. In those three inch heels, she was just the right height for them to feast on her, to devour. Evan didn‟t just taste her mouth, he savored her the way he would a fine wine, swept his tongue through the sweet velvet depths, tested the texture, the flavor of her. She tasted of Lily, of the sugar and the whiskey in the sauce she‟d sampled. He groaned, wrapped an arm around her waist even as Dylan did, so they sandwiched her between them. The sure knowledge that both of them would take her made Evan‟s balls tighten and his cock go harder still. He could almost picture it, his shaft sliding into her, or Dylan‟s, and his dick twitched, ached, in response. Lily could feel him, could feel the rigid hardness of Evan‟s cock against her belly, even as Dylan pressed against her back. Dylan‟s stiff member nestled just above the cheeks of her ass as his arm slid around her belly. She‟d only dared to dream of kissing Evan, of feeling that marvelous mouth on hers. To feel it now as his tongue explored her mouth so deeply, burned all thought away. He was delicious, his mouth as firm as she‟d imagined, the taste of him sweet and clean. To feel Dylan‟s lips moving on her skin too? Heat pooled deep in her belly. All she could do, all she could think about, was the feel of him, of them, around her. Dylan‟s mouth closed softly over her shoulder as his arm tightened around her and then he bit, lightly, sending a shaft of electric heat as straight as an arrow to her over-stimulated core. She moaned. Both men jolted at the sound, pressed their cocks against her. It was more than Lily could have dreamed. Her body was in overdrive. Heat poured through her in waves. All she was aware of was Dylan‟s body against her, Evan‟s arm banded around her waist. For years Evan had wanted this, had wanted not just to kiss Lily, but to touch her, make love to her, fuck her. Then she was gone. For almost a decade. Now his chance was here once again. He skimmed his hand up her hip, past Dylan‟s arm around her waist to brush his fingers lightly over her breast. She gasped, quivered as he found the hardness there beneath the silk of her dress. The combination of textures, the softness, the stiffened nub of her nipple beneath, sent a shot of lust straight to his cock. Ever so lightly he let his fingers dance over her, teasing until her nipple stood stiff beneath the fabric. Driving his tongue deeper into her mouth, he pinched that rigid nub. She moaned.

He cupped her breast, let the full delicious weight of it fill his hand, squeezed it hard as his thumb brushed over the now stiffened and sensitized tip. She whimpered, quivering. That sound went through Dylan like lightning, a shot of electricity straight to his balls. He lifted his lips from the smooth curve of her shoulder, the taste of her skin, to watch as Evan played with Lily‟s breast. A rush went through him at the sight and he pushed his throbbing cock harder against her tight, sweet ass. He loved the act, loved making love, but more what turned him on, what got him truly hard, was observing. To watch skin against skin, the curve of limbs, the lines, the flow, as he listened to Lily‟s soft cries, Evan‟s harsh breathing, the soft brush of fabric against fabric creating a hushed music of its own. It was fascinating to watch color flush her cheeks, to watch her eyelids flutter as Evan kissed her, to see her taut nipple tent the fluid fabric of the dress. God he wanted to fuck her, he was pretty certain they both did but he knew Evan well enough to know they both also wanted this to last. If they did this right, they could go all night. Just the thought sent another jolt of heat through him. Dylan tightened his arm around Lily‟s waist, reached to fill his hand with her other breast, squeezed tightly. She shuddered, hard, in his arms. Just right. She was just right, her breast filled his hand perfectly. He squeezed again to feel the fullness, to watch his fingertips press against the firm roundness beneath the silk, and she moaned. Balanced as she was between them it wasn‟t difficult to find the zipper to her dress. The sound as he drew it down was a soft purr. Dylan shivered with pleasure as the long graceful line of her back was revealed to him. Her bra clasp was a soft champagne pink, delicate lace against her pale skin. Dylan found the slender column throat again, savored the taste of her with his tongue, felt her quiver as he did it, then let his mouth trace the line of it downward, brushing the silk away. Caught between them, Lily was dazzled, overwhelmed with the sense of them. Her awareness had narrowed their touch, to Evan‟s mouth finally on hers while Dylan‟s lips moved over her shoulder, Evan‟s fingers as they teased her nipple, Dylan‟s hand tight on her other breast. Heat pooled deep and low in her belly. She was taut with need, her pussy ached. Her thighs were so wet. She was barely aware of her hips moving, rocking against them, pushing her mound against Evan‟s iron-hard cock, her ass against Dylan‟s. She felt cool air against her back briefly but then Dylan was close again. His warm lips settled on the curve of her neck, his tongue caressed it to send a shot of heat through her. He sucked at her skin lightly as his fingers found and pinched her nipple once again. She whimpered as they played with her, their caresses delicious, maddening. She was drunk on their touch. Dylan‟s mouth moved over her shoulder even as Evan‟s hand came up to brush over the other. Both stepped back only long enough to let her dress to slip off before they reclaimed her once again. Cool air rushed over her heated skin as silk whispered to the floor. Warmth surrounded her as they caught her between them. She was conscious of their eyes and hands on her exposed skin. She couldn‟t take her eyes off their hands as they touched her. “God, you‟re beautiful,” Evan said, looking down at her, at the lush beauty of her breasts, her hips, trapped within pale pink lace, her trim belly. “Even more beautiful than I imagined.”

She trembled as she watched him trace his fingers ever so lightly over the curve of one laceclad breast. The color made her skin seem so white, the dusky darkness of her areole just visible beneath it. Dylan reached around to cup her breasts, to hold them for him. Heat shot deep into his belly at the gesture. She trembled. As Dylan brushed his lips over Lily‟s ear and watched, Evan teased Lily‟s stiff nipples beneath the lace. He pinched them, first one then the other. She moaned, her eyelids fluttering over her soft brown eyes. “Damn that‟s hot,” Dylan whispered, his voice rough with desire. Evan let his fingers float over her, down her ribs, over her belly to toy with her navel as her abs tightened in response. Ever so lightly, he ran his fingers down to the fine lace over her mound, to the crisp hairs there. She shivered with need but Dylan held her securely as Evan‟s fingers dipped between her thighs. “She‟s so wet,” Evan said, nearly reverently. He loved the sight of her like this, control gone, evaporated, her lush, lovely body trembling. At their mercy. The rich aroma of her musk filled the air, mixed with the sweet scent of the sauces. It was intoxicating. Evan needed to see her, all of her. Reaching behind her, he unhooked her bra with one hand. As Dylan brushed the straps away from her shoulders it fell and Evan caught one ripe, full bare breast in his hand, the weight of it sweet in his palm. Her nipple was tightly ruched, so hard. She quivered. For a moment he could only relish the sight of it in his palm at last, so firm, so white, but he knew he needed to taste it too. Curling an arm around her, he lowered his mouth to her breast and savored her, his tongue testing, exploring her textures. Helplessly Lily watched as Evan‟s mouth closed around her tingling nipple, felt the hot moist heat of it surround her stiff nub, his tongue sweep over it and then he suckled. Pleasure swept through her, her back arched, but Dylan held her steady, turned her face to his and claimed her mouth. Moaning, Lily wrapped a hand around his head as much for balance as to pull that firm mouth even harder against hers while his tongue drove deep. Her other hand clutched at Evan‟s broad muscled shoulder as his mouth drew harder on her breast, sending shots of heat bolting down to her drenched pussy. They held her between them as Evan‟s free hand slipped beneath her panties to tease, as his long fingers combed through the hair there, caught it to tug lightly. She quivered helplessly and whimpered with need. His fingers moved down, tapped her clit. Her hips bucked against his hand, begged for more. Deliberately, Evan slid his hand beneath her panties. She was nearly naked now and, except for the panties and her high heels, exposed to them. Dylan took a quick moment to remove his shirt, caught her close again as he used his free hand to unfasten his belt.

Taking his cue Evan stripped his shirt over his head, tossed it aside. He watched Lily‟s eyes widen. Her lips parted on a soft sigh and he smiled as her gaze followed his hands when they moved to his own belt, unfastened it. His already throbbing cock stiffened even more. He unbuttoned his pants, drew his zipper down to set his cock free, stroked it harder as her eyes widened and Dylan played with her breasts. The sight of Dylan‟s hands as they squeezed those firm white mounds, as his fingers pinched lightly at her nipples made Evan even harder. To watch Lily look at him as he stroked his cock, her tongue peeking between her lips to lick them hungrily, nearly made him come. But not yet. He‟d waited too long for this and it was turning into such a pleasure for all three of them that he didn‟t want to deny Lily or Dylan any of it. Or himself. They had all night. He was going to use as much of it as he could. Her eyelids fluttered as Dylan‟s mouth moved over her throat again but her eyes were locked on him, on his body. As were Dylan‟s. He slid two fingers deep into her sweet channel, hard and fast. She bucked, hard, against his hand, drove his fingers even further as she cried out in surprise and pleasure. Evan thrust his fingers inside her, finger-fucked her as Dylan watched avidly. “Damn, Dylan,” he groaned, “she‟s so fucking hot, so wet, and so tight.” Her pussy flexed around his fingers at his words. “God, Lily, I want to fuck you so bad, I‟ve waited years for this,” he said, “for the chance to fuck this sweet tight pussy until you scream, but not yet.” She moaned, her hips pushing against his hand. Lily thought she would lose her mind. A rush of heat went through her as his words penetrated. Then his fingers did, deeper. Between Dylan‟s hands on her breasts and Evan‟s fingers inside her, she was beyond being capable of thought. Then Evan slid her panties over her hips, drew them off and tossed them away as he went to his knees in front of her. He slid his hands up her thighs, coaxed them apart and drew one leg over his shoulder to open her to him. Her body seemed to turn molten. Her heart pounded with incredulous anticipation as she watched him breath in the scent of her as if he were breathing a fine wine. He tipped her hips toward him and his mouth brushed ever so lightly over her throbbing, swollen clit. He sipped at it, sucked it in, his tongue traced it, toyed with it. A deep rush of pleasure poured through her, gathered inside her. She cried out, wailed, as he drew her tender nub into his mouth to tease. If Dylan hadn‟t been holding her, if her leg hadn‟t been over Evan‟s shoulder, she would have collapsed. Then Dylan sucked on her neck, his fingers pinched and tugged at her nipples while Evan suckled at her clit. Each pinch sent a burst of heat through her. When Evan‟s fingers drove up inside her again, found her g-spot, she erupted, coming hard as her body bucked and ecstasy exploded inside her. The pleasure was so intense she thought she‟d gone blind and deaf as it burst through her, obliterating thought. She went limp, quivering, but Dylan caught her up in his arms and then Evan was there to help carry her to a table, to lay her there with her hips on the edge, her legs spread to expose her. Dazed, Lily looked from beneath her heavy eyelids at them, two magnificent men, both beautiful, their cocks long, thick, hard. She wanted those cocks inside her, desperately.

“Beautiful,” Dylan said, his voice husky as he admired her. He let his pants fall, kicked them away as he stroked his thick rigid cock. “She is,” Evan agreed. “I‟ve waited a long time for this. It was worth the wait.” “Are you in a hurry?” Dylan asked. Evan shook his head. “No, I want to make this last.” Dylan smiled, slowly. “Good plan.” “Did you know Lily is the wizard of sauces?” Evan asked, apparently idly. His voice intrigued, curious, Dylan said, “No, I didn‟t.” Lily was curious, too, a surge of anticipation racing through her at his words. Evan picked up one of the bottles sitting in the heated water. “Her whiskey sauce is amazing,” he said. A flush of heat went through Lily and she moaned, her body quivering at the thought of what he intended. “Yours?” Evan asked her. Trembling in anticipation, she nodded. “You have to taste it, Dylan,” Evan said and upended the squirt bottle expertly, drizzled the contents over her. “It‟s incredible.” Warm sauce spurted over her nipple, slid down the side of her breast. The feel of the heated sugary liquid was astonishingly sensuous as Evan let it trace over her body as if she were a dessert meant for just the two of them. The thin delicate stream slid warmly over her skin as he let it trail over her belly, fill the cup of her navel to overflowing, and drip over, down and between her thighs. Lily moaned at the erotic feel of the sauce on her skin, warm as it squirted over sensitive flesh. “Hmmm,” Dylan murmured, watching. With a smile, he licked his lips. He bent and then slowly stroked his tongue up the side of her breast to gather the sauce that had dripped over it. That talented tongue swirled around her areole, teased, sucked her nipple into his mouth, drew hard on it to suck every bit of sweetness from her skin. Intense shots of pleasure raced to her core. As Dylan sucked, Evan drizzled more of the warm sauce over her thighs, then up her body to circle her other nipple. He set the bottle aside as Dylan sucked at her breast in hard pulls that sent shots of heat through her once again. Her throat locked at the look in Evan‟s eyes as he watched Dylan devour her breast. He smiled wickedly and stroked his shaft as she trembled. “You‟re right, it is good,” Dylan said, lifting his head to lick his lips and eye the trails of sauce that had been trickled over her body. “Very good. I think I need to taste more, I can‟t get enough of it.” A burst of heat went through her at his words. “Dylan,” she whispered. He glanced at her even as he gave one more slow lick to her nipple, smiled, and then began a leisurely exploration of where the trails of sauce led. Finding her navel, he speared his tongue deeply into it, driving a groan from her, and then sucked at it as if he were determined to draw every drop of sauce from within it. Then Evan‟s mouth closed over her other nipple, suckled hard. She jolted in response.

Moaning, she curled one hand into his thick wavy hair as her senses were overwhelmed, went wild. Her other hand locked on the edge of the table, desperately holding on to sanity as Dylan‟s tongue danced over her lower belly, teased, licked and lapped at her thighs. His hands gently parted them to get at the sauce between them. They were driving her mad. Then Evan leaned over her, propped himself on one arm with his hand beside her head to look at her as Dylan‟s mouth moved up the inside of her thigh. Evan looked into her eyes, his blue eyes piercing. “I wanted this then, Lily,” he said and brushed his lips over hers. “I always wanted you.” Slowly, he lowered his mouth to cover hers, to possess it as Dylan delicately exposed her clit then flicked it with his tongue. Pleasure shot through her and she cried out. Lifting his lips from hers, Evan teased her nipples with his other hand, his eyes locked on hers as Dylan licked lightly, ever so gently at her tender bud. She wailed softly as Dylan tormented her sweetly, drove her up higher, higher. “I want to watch you come,” Evan said softly, and brushed his lips over hers. Her body bucked at his words as if they were electric, her pussy clenched as Dylan slid a finger inside her. Another cry escaped her. Evan nibbled on her lip and pinched her other nipple, hard, to send a sharp jolt of pleasure streaking through her, his eyes on hers. Dylan suckled hard on her clit. Evan‟s hand locked in her hair so she had to look at him, so he could watch, holding her eyes on his as she came, crying out, hips bucking, her body going wild as Dylan sucked and suckled at her. All thought was gone, all she could experience was the pleasure, all she could see was Evan‟s clear blue eyes. His fingers tugged on her nipples as her orgasm took her. Dylan sucked on her clit, driving her up and over again and again until she was limp, quivering. Straightening, Dylan smiled and reached for a napkin to wipe his mouth. “Very tasty. Very tight, very hot, and very, very wet. I‟ll bet she needs fucked badly.” Almost against her will, Lily moaned at the suggestion, and her pussy tightened at the thought of being filled by either one of them. Then the other. Leaning down, Evan kissed her softly and stepped away as Dylan came around the table to kiss her, too, a brush of his lips across hers, still smiling, but there was anticipation in his gaze. “I think you‟re right,” Evan murmured, smiling, as he moved between her thighs, stroking his thick cock. He was so beautiful, and his cock was long, thick and rigid¸ the head swollen. A pulse throbbed in the vein that ran through it. Her pussy nearly wept at the thought of it inside her finally. She‟d waited a long time, too, but this, this was more than she‟d ever dreamed possible. Even in her wildest dreams she‟d never dared dream to have him inside her. Beside her, Dylan stroked himself, too, watched Evan as Evan brushed the head of his cock between her lower lips. She groaned at the feel of the fullness of him there, the pressure against her. He worked the broad head just inside her, tantalized, teased. She moaned, her channel clenching, wanting him inside her.

“Damn you‟re tight, Lily, so sweet, so tight,” Evan said, his eyes half closed with pleasure. “I can feel you suck at me. Wait until you feel this, Dylan. God this is good.” As he worked his shaft around in her, Evan watched her. With no other choice she clung to the table with both hands, braced herself, her hair in a glorious tangle around her face, her shoulders. Her soft lips were parted, her eyelids fluttered, the tips of her breasts were blushed and rosy, they rose and fell as she panted, writhed beneath him. He had waited so long for this. In one swift move, he impaled her on him, drove his shaft hard and deep inside the tight, slick depths of her, all the way up until he could feel her womb brush against the head of his cock, his hands tight on her hips. She cried out, her hips bucked as her pussy clenched around him. Holding her, holding himself deep, he worked his cock inside her. “So fucking hot, so tight and so wet,” he ground out. “Damn, Lily, you feel incredible.” Watching Evan had Dylan as hard as a rock. This was what he loved, watching Evan‟s long thick rod disappear inside her, seeing their bodies fuse, Evan‟s tanned skin so dark against Lily‟s whiteness, their muscles flexing as Evan thrust inside her. He desperately needed a little relief himself. “Lily,” he said. Her head turned, her dazed eyes looked at him, struggled to focus. Making sure she saw the movement, he reached for the bottle of still warm sauce, drizzled it over the head of his cock. He brushed it against her lips, pushed a little. Her tongue slipped over the crown. To his astonishment her lips parted and his cock slid between them. He moaned with pleasure at the sight, and again when she sucked almost frantically as Evan drove his cock into her. Finding his rhythm Evan fucked her hard, in deep, long strokes that drove a cry, and then a moan from her. Tangling his hands in her hair, Dylan clung lightly, guiding her mouth over him, watching as his cock disappear between those pretty lips. He looked up at Evan‟s groan to see him watching too. “Damn,” he said, watching Evan‟s cock slide into Lily‟s pussy, his own cock slip in and out of her mouth. “I think this is the hottest thing I‟ve ever done or seen.” It was the hottest thing Evan had ever done or seen, too, but he knew if he didn‟t pull out, he was going to come and he didn‟t want to do that yet, no matter how hard he was. “Do you want some of this?” he asked, pulling out with a groan. “I don‟t want to come yet, but if I stay here, I will.” “God, yes,” Dylan said, as much as he hated pulling out of her hot wet mouth. Bending over, he kissed her gently. “Damn you‟re sweet, Lily.” Lily moaned as she felt Evan leave her, Dylan‟s words sending a thrill through her. It was hotter than she‟d ever imagined sex could be, all of it, and Evan‟s cock had felt better than she‟d ever dreamed when it thrust inside her, stretched her. Each stroke had filled her more completely than any man ever had. Then Dylan‟s cock slid smoothly up inside her in one long deep thrust and she cried out. Her pussy clenched around the thick invasion and her back arched as she clung to the table. “Fuck, she‟s tight,” he growled. She couldn‟t exactly tell him that no man could compare to Evan, except him, and so there hadn‟t been anyone in a very long time.

The instant Dylan thrust inside her, her thighs spread to accommodate him, and he sank deep into the sweet hot depths of her. For a minute he had to hold there or he would have come as her slick inner muscles clenched tightly around him. “God that‟s good,” he said. “Damn.” He savored the sensation of her body as it trembled beneath his, her muscles clenched around his thick rod buried deep inside her, all the way to his balls. He could feel the top of her pussy as he worked himself inside her. She bucked, whimpering, her hips moving, desperate to be fucked. “Lily.” Evan‟s voice. With an effort Lily opened her eyes, nearly mewling with the need to come. Evan was washing his cock, using the water she‟d set aside to rinse off the utensils. His hands slipped and slid over his thick member. “Will you suck me too?” he asked, reaching for one of the warmed bottles. Her mouth watered as he drizzled warm raspberry sauce over his twitching shaft. The thought of the taste of the sauce on him sent a shiver through her. Evan nearly lost it when her lips parted, took his cock in hungrily. For a minute he struggled for control, then thrust deep, felt her throat work at the head of him and his hands locked as she quivered. Deliberately, he forced himself to pull back, no matter how good it felt. Then she sucked him and he groaned. She moaned and the vibration of it nearly made him come. Evan looked up to see Dylan fucking her slowly and steadily, going deep into her pussy with each thrust even as he fucked her soft wet mouth. It was nearly more than he could take. “Dylan,” Evan said, his control shredding. With a nod, Dylan pulled out, to Lily‟s cry of dismay, and stepped back. “One day I‟m going to fuck that sweet mouth of yours until I come,” Evan said, softly, a promise to her as he walked around the table. “But not this time. This time, this first time I want to come in that tight sweet pussy. I want to fuck you until you scream.” Startled, Lily opened her eyes, looked at him just in time, as he rammed his cock deep inside her. As promised, she screamed, a cry of sheer pleasure as he drove up into her, fucked her hard and deep, his cock swelling inside her. Thickening, his throbbing shaft plunged into her as he deliberately sought all the sweet spots inside her. When he found the right spot her hips lifted, pumping madly, begging for release. Her body closed tightly around him, gloved him, stroked him. Control snapped. Evan grabbed the edge of the table to add power to each thrust as he pounded into her. She writhed beneath him, cried out, called his name, clutched the edges of the table to brace herself to take him. Lily had never been fucked so hard and deep before, his cock pulsed inside her. She nearly wept with the pleasure of it and tried to take him deeper, shifted her hips as he hammered into her. He groaned, ground his throbbing member inside her. She cried out again as he came, as he slammed against her, held himself there as his hot cum burst inside her, filled her, his hips locked tightly against hers.

From beneath her eyelashes she could see him, so beautiful, every glorious muscle taut as pleasure moved through him. His hips thrust with each spurt of his cum into her. Her back arched. She trembled with need, she was so close to the edge. To her dismay, he pulled out, stepped away to collapse in the chair next to the table. She cried out to find herself empty, but then another hard, thick cock slammed up inside her. Pleasure streaked through her as her orgasm locked around Dylan‟s thick shaft. She wept then with intense pleasure as it drove deep, rammed hard then harder as she shuddered in ecstasy. Her hips lifted frantically. Her hands scrabbled at the table, clung. Nearly delirious with the pleasure of her sweet, tight pussy gloved around him, for Dylan it was an incredible sight to see, Lily‟s head tossing, her hands locked on the table as he fucked her. Then Evan slipped a hand between them as Dylan drove his pulsing shaft deep inside that close velvety warmth. Evan‟s nimble fingers found Lily‟s clit, stroked it as his other hand stroked her hair. She wailed, arched beneath him, went wild, quivering, her pussy spasmed around Dylan‟s cock, her inner walls stroked him, milked him as she came again. It was incredible. Nothing had felt as good as this. Dylan came with a shout, slammed his cock deep inside her as his cum jetted in thick spurts and he emptied into her. Bracing himself on one arm was the only thing that kept him from collapsing on top of her. “Damn,” he whispered. “I can‟t move.” He chuckled ruefully, kissed Lily‟s forehead. Warmth of a different kind moved through her. Evan caught her hand, lifted it to kiss the back. Something inside her loosened, her heart filled at the gesture. “Now what?” he asked. Lily looked up, feeling Dylan still inside her, Evan beside her. “Apartment. Upstairs. Mine.” Almost bewildered she looked at him, still amazed he was even here, and then she looked at Dylan. This had to be a dream, a sweet erotic dream. It couldn‟t be real.

Chapter Four If it had been a dream it wasn‟t over by morning. Lily woke slowly, languorously, in her own bed, her body aching with delicious use, sandwiched warmly between two hard male bodies, their limbs tangled with and around her. Part of her wondered how she‟d gotten there, but she vaguely remembered muttering something about her apartment upstairs. She opened her eyes to find Evan Taylor lying next to her. That was something she‟d never dared allow herself to dream. Lifting a hand, she touched one marvelously sculpted cheekbone, traced it. Definitely not imagination. “Real,” she whispered. His eyes opened. Reaching out, he returned the gesture, his eyes on hers before he touched his lips to hers. Something inside her that had long lain dormant stirred. Behind her, she felt Dylan‟s arm slip around her waist, tighten so he could pull himself closer. His lengthening cock slid between her thighs. Still sleepy and a little groggy, she looked at Evan in wonder. Disbelief. Looked over her shoulder at Dylan. “This is real?” Evan smiled, kissed her. “Does it feel real?” The lips against hers were warm, firm. His hand slid over her shoulder and down to toy with her breast, tease her nipple. She looked at him, smiled in return. “That mouth of yours should be illegal. So should your fingers.” His smile widened into a grin. Dylan‟s lips moved over her ear. “How about this? Does this feel real?” His hard shaft slid into her pussy in one long slow push. Evan watched her eyes widen, as her lips parted on soft groan and he smiled, having a pretty good guess what Dylan had done. He was sporting some pretty impressive morning wood himself, especially when waking up to the soft sweet scent of Lily. “Yes,” she said in answer, her voice thick as Dylan‟s cock drove deeper. Evan‟s hand slid down to her hip, held her in place as Dylan thrust. Her eyelids fluttered as pleasure washed through her. His mouth covered hers as Dylan fucked her in slow steady strokes. “Damn, you are sweet, Lily,” Dylan groaned softly, working his cock inside her. “I truly do love fucking you. You are one fine ride.” Evan‟s hand slipped lower on her hip as he shifted down. That wicked mouth brushed over her nipple. He nipped it and she yelped. Dylan‟s cock thickened inside her as her body tightened in reaction. Reaching between them Evan found her clit, drew the moisture up from where their bodies were joined and used it as lubricant, swirled his finger over her tender nub. “But,” he said, “you still haven‟t told us whether you‟re going to come to work for me. For us.” Eyelids fluttering, Lily groaned. “Say yes, Lily,” Evan said, licking at her nipple Moaning, Lily protested, “That‟s not fair.”

Evan sucked her nipple into his mouth, suckled hard as Dylan thrust steadily inside her. Dylan‟s fingers tantalized her clit until she whimpered, nearly wailed. “Who said we fight fair?” he asked, holding her on the edge, her pussy clenching around his cock, “No, this isn‟t fair, but we want you, and we don‟t fight fair.” Once more Evan nipped at her nipple, and pleasure-pain streaked to her core. “Say yes, Lily,” he said, and nibbled. Quivering nearly uncontrollably, she moaned. “Lily,” Evan said, insistently, and caught her stiff nub between his teeth, tugged on it. Pleasure blinded her, pooled in her belly, her muscles drew tighter and tighter. She was going to lose her mind. Within her, Dylan swelled as his hips drove against her from behind. His mouth closed on her shoulder, teeth scraped. Evan teased. “Yes, oh God, please yes,” she cried. As Evan suckled hard, Dylan thrust deep inside her. With a cry as he came, his fingers tightened reflexively on Lily‟s clit. She jolted, cried out, even as he pulled out of her to flop on his back next to her. In the next moment, Evan flipped her onto her belly and mounted her, driving his hard thick rod inside her. He rode her hard and fast, almost brutally, one hand on her shoulder, driving her hips deep into the mattress with each thrust. She loved it. Her orgasm closed around him as he hammered against the very top of her pussy. He collapsed on top of her, breathless, kissed her shoulder, her cheek before he curled against her side. Rolling onto his side beside her, Dylan kissed her, too, brushed her disheveled hair back from her face tenderly. “I‟m going to hold you to that „yes‟, you know,” he said, with a grin. She opened one eye, looked at him, smiled a little. “This‟s coercion, you know.” He chuckled. “All‟s fair. You want to protest? We can coerce you a little more. As often as you like until you agree.” “Hmmmm,” she said her grin widening. “All right.” “Good, I have the contract with me,” he said, rolled off the bed and went downstairs, naked, to get his briefcase. She laughed. She should have known. She was glad it was morning and the restaurant was still closed, although the female staff and customers wouldn‟t have minded seeing a naked Dylan one bit, admiring his fine tight ass as he disappeared down the stairs. Even so she hadn‟t committed to anything. Yet. Not until she signed on the bottom line. TV. Evan‟s television show. The ratings might have dropped a little but it was still one of the most watched TV shows on cable. Who didn‟t want to do TV? Evan tugged her on top of him, settled her over his long body, her legs tangled with his. “Are you sure this is what you want?” he asked, his eyes serious. Damn, those eyes were incredible. It was the chance of a lifetime, if the contract was everything Dylan promised. Juan was her sous chef and an excellent chef in his own right. Although her cuisine had been mostly French and Italian he‟d added a Spanish flair with his heavenly paellas. She knew she could leave her baby, her restaurant, safe in his capable hands. And, looking into Evan‟s blue eyes, it was also a second chance with him.

She heard Dylan‟s feet on the stairs. It was a chance, a gamble, with both of them. Resting her chin on her hands, both of them on top of his magnificent chest, she said, simply, “Yes.” For a second she hesitated and then asked, “What about you?” There were no promises between them, not yet. She wouldn‟t hold him to anything he didn‟t want. Reaching up, Evan brushed her tangled hair back from her face. His craggy face softened and he smiled a little. “I can‟t promise not to shout at you.” She laughed. “Fair enough. I won‟t promise not to shout back.” His chuckle rumbled through her. Pressing her lips against one beautifully curved pec, she said, “I didn‟t expect you to. I never wanted you to change, Evan.” “Good, because I probably won‟t,” he said and smiled wryly. “So, yes, it‟s what I want.” She loved his smile, rare as it was, she always had. It changed his face completely, softened the harsh lines, turned him from dangerous wolf into mischievous man. Looking at that smile, you had to smile back. So she did. In one movement he rolled her onto her back, looked down into her face, brushed her hair back with his palms and kissed her softly. “Yes,” he said, “it‟s very much what I want.”

Chapter Five All the other passengers were standing, pulling their luggage from the overhead compartments. Lily waited for the crowd to thin but she‟d no sooner turned on her cell phone when it rang. The whole flight she‟d fought second thoughts, doubts and fears, despite the fact both Evan and Dylan had spent the entire second day convincing her, very thoroughly, that they were very certain they wanted her to do this. Her stomach was aflutter with butterflies. It was a great opportunity. They had said they wanted her to come. She would be out of debt. She kept reminding herself of that. They wanted her to start immediately but there had been arrangements that needed to be made on both ends. Lily had promoted Juan into the head chef position at Callaghan‟s and gave him the power to choose his own replacement as sous chef. He would be the one who needed to work with them, not her. A part of her was afraid Evan and Dylan would have had second thoughts. Or it had all been a very detailed dream, although parts of her knew vividly it hadn‟t. She looked at the display on her phone. Evan. Her heart was in her throat. There were five other calls from him, all within the last ten minutes, around the time her plane landed. Taking a quick breath, she flipped the phone open. “Evan?” “Lily.” There was relief in his voice. A matching relief flooded her at the sound of it. “First,” he said, and she could hear concern, frustration and anger underlying the relief, “Understand we both wanted to be there to meet you at the airport but there was a last minute request for a table for twenty. My people took the reservation before I could tell them not to. Not on your first night.” Lily knew exactly how that could go, having dealt with something similar many times. A reservation like it was a godsend on one hand, a nightmare on the other. Parties like that ate and drank a lot and usually left generous tips for the staff. First, though, space had to be prepared even if there was a banquet room. With that many people tables and staff almost always had to be rearranged. Taking servers from one place meant doing without somewhere else or calling more people in to work. Groups were also unpredictable. They could appear at once, flooding the kitchen with orders for twenty meals that all had to go out at or as close to the same time as humanly possible. If they ordered a la carte it was even harder, as some meals were quick and easy to prepare, like steak, while others were far more complicated. “With the show live tonight it means Dylan had to reset the camera setups to accommodate so he can‟t be there either.” “Evan,” she said, softly, to interrupt. “It‟s all right, I understand.” He let out a breath, audible over the phone. She could almost picture Evan running one long-fingered hand through his thick dark hair in frustration. “Lily, I‟m sorry,” he said. “We did want to be there.” She smiled.

“It‟s fine, Evan, really.” “All right,” he said. “Dylan sent a limousine from the service we use to meet you. He said to leave your things with the driver, everything is arranged. It‟s all taken care of. Just bring your work clothes and come straight here.” In the background she could hear someone call him. “I have to go, I‟ll see you when you get here,” he said. “We‟ll make it up to you later.” A click and he was gone. Typical Evan. She smiled and gathered her things. As promised, a limousine driver waited for her outside of baggage check, a big burly man with a well-worn homely face and hang-dog brown eyes. He held a sign with her name on it. There was a name stitched on his uniform jacket. All it said was „Bob‟. Tipping his hat, he said, “Ms. Cavanaugh?” “That would be me,” she said. She smiled and held out her hand. He seemed almost surprised at the gesture but he took it and smiled a little shyly. “Welcome to New York. This way,” he said, escorting her through the crowd, toting her luggage as if it were nothing. “I‟m a huge fan of the show.” He patted an ample belly. “As you can tell, I like to eat. I have a couple of your cookbooks too. The show is lucky to have you. Don‟t let Evan get to you, bully you, he can be mean.” Evan‟s TV reputation had preceded him apparently. Lily smiled. “I won‟t,” she promised. “Mr. Bryant said to tell you that you were welcome to anything in the fridge, there‟s something in there to calm your nerves if you need it and the flowers are from both of them.” She smiled as he chanted it off as if he had memorized it and repeated it back by rote. There were two roses in the back, one pure white, one deep red. Pure love and erotic passion. In the refrigerator a small bottle of champagne and a small bottle of orange juice awaited her. Mimosas. Lily smiled. She‟d pass on the mimosas on her first day, she wanted her wits about her. She held the roses to her nose to breathe in the scent as they drove. As she walked in the back door of the restaurant Evan looked up at the sound of the door opening, stepped away from the group of people he was talking to and came to meet her, a smile curving his mouth. The moment she saw him, so beautiful, his eyes brightening as he came toward her, her heart lifted and started beating faster. Desire rushed through her, drew her nipples tight and flooded her pussy. For a moment he held her shoulders, just looking at her, and her throat grew tight at the look in his eyes. Doubt vanished. Then he pressed a kiss to her cheek, leaned close to whisper quickly in her ear. His lips brushed the curve of it, the gesture deliberate, sending goose bumps over her. “Dylan and I really wanted to meet you at the airport and greet you properly. He‟s on his way. You don‟t know how much I want to kiss you right now. I just want you to know that if it weren‟t that it would be bad for morale, I would kiss you senseless and then we‟d fuck your brains out.” He held her away, looked down at her his eyes hot and grinned.

She laughed, even as a matching heat shot through her and said, softly, “Hello to you too, Evan.” Evan chuckled, but looking into that lovely face he fought the urge to do exactly as he‟d said. One look was all it had taken, the minute she stepped through the doors. Just the sight of her, her hair loose to frame her lovely face before spilling over her shoulders, her dress skimming her curves, and Evan had gone hard in an instant. All he wanted was to strip that dress from her, take that soft mouth and get his hands on her body. But he couldn‟t, there was no time. Instead, he gestured. “This is it, restaurant and set. Everything was remodeled just for the show.” The space had been redesigned to be both a real kitchen and a working set, with fixed lights and cameras strategically placed along the walls and along supports in the metal rafters above. The aisles between ranges, ovens and tables were wider than normal to accommodate cameramen. Out in the restaurant proper, cameras and microphones were concealed discreetly within the walls and tables, a few hidden in the eaves or concealed by domes. At the moment none of the production side was in evidence, none of the cameramen or sound people. There was only the staff of both the kitchen and the TV show. It was just before show time, though, the decision to do that had been deliberate. Dylan hadn‟t wanted word to get out about the change to the various talk shows and he wanted the reactions of the staff to Lily‟s sudden arrival to be genuine, dramatic. It was so sudden Lily didn‟t even know where she was staying yet, as Evan had said Dylan had made all those arrangements. Knowing how detail-oriented he was though, bringing the contract with him to that first meeting for instance, and in all their conversations since, she was perfectly happy to leave it all in his capable hands. She would be as new to the staff as the viewers though, literally hitting the ground running. It promised to be interesting. As if the thought of him conjured him up, Dylan came through the doors from the back. His brown eyes warmed as his gaze met hers, a smile on his handsome face. Her heart caught and her body heated. She hadn‟t been sure how he would react, or how she would, but seeing him again she knew she wanted him just as much as she did Evan. He caught her hands in his. “Damn, Lily,” Dylan said and glanced quickly at Evan, clearly as frustrated as he was at the circumstances. “You‟re as beautiful as I remembered. Did Evan tell you how much we wanted to meet you at the airport, to greet you properly?” A lovely flush rose in her face, her eyelashes fluttered a little over those soft brown eyes. “Yes.” “I see he did,” he said, with a grin. Tugging her closer to kiss her cheek, he whispered against it. “Did he tell you how much we both want to fuck you?” Feeling her quiver in his arms, he smiled and stepped back enough to see her brown eyes were a little blurred. She cleared her throat, looked up at him. An eyebrow lifted. “Yes, I believe he did convey that message.” He laughed. “If we had more time…” He sighed. “But we don‟t.” Taking a breath, reluctantly he turned away.

“Okay, let‟s get this show on the road. Meeting, everyone, now. It‟s show time, folks.” As everyone moved toward the kitchen, their attention elsewhere, Evan‟s arm slipped around her, pulled Lily into his arms. His fingers speared into her hair as he crushed his mouth over hers, his tongue driving deep. Just as quickly, he released her. “There‟s a place to change in the back,” he said, as he cupped her face and his thumb brushed over her bottom lip. “Ready?” She smiled. “I think so.” Turning her in the right direction, he smacked her sharply on the ass and strode away. Evan was being filmed giving last minute instructions to the staff as she walked back into the room, a shoulder mounted camera pointed at him. He gestured her toward him. “Perfect timing. Ladies and gentlemen, this is Lily Cavanaugh. Some of you were aware that changes were being made. Lily is that change. As of today she‟s our new sous chef. All right, everyone to your stations.” The meeting broke up as everyone obeyed and the restaurant opened for customers. It was a little strange to find herself in kitchen whites once again, with her hair confined and an apron tied around her, but old habits died hard. As the orders flooded in Lily fell into those habits easily. She instructed the prep, saucier and dessert chefs, took some parts of the meals in hand herself while Evan took his specialties, and responded to his instructions for the orders as the tension in the room ratcheted up and the orders came fast and furious. Every show was set up to feature a certain dish, how it was prepared, how it was served, with Evan watching the preparation and judging it as it was finished but before it went out to the customer. Then the customer‟s reaction were filmed. Pots and pans clattered, knives chopped spices, meats, vegetables, sauces were whipped or blended, the air filled with the aroma of food cooking. Lily loved it, every minute of it. This was her element. An order got confused somehow, the server grabbing the wrong plate. Lily saw the mistake and jumped in to catch it even as Evan spotted it, shouting, cutting the server off before he could leave with it. “I‟ve got it,” she said. “Don‟t tell me you‟ve got it,” Evan snapped back. He was furious at the mistake and how close it had come to going out to the table. “Tell me it‟s fixed.” Swapping the plates around, she threw up her hands like calf-roper with a successful tie. “It‟s fixed,” she shot back. To the server she said, “Slow down. A second to be sure takes less time than ten seconds to fix. GO, before it gets cold.” “Next time don‟t get it wrong in the first place,” Evan snapped at the server. Lily rolled her eyes, but said, “He has a point. Pay closer attention. Go.” “Don‟t give me that look, Cavanaugh,” Evan snarled. “Just like old times, Evan,” she tossed over her shoulder and then corrected herself. “Chef Taylor.” “Screw that,” he growled back. Glancing over her shoulder at him, she smiled sweetly back at him, knowing it would fan the flames of his fury.

That smile was like a punch in the gut, a goad to Evan‟s temper even as it sent a shot of lust straight to his cock. He didn‟t know whether he wanted to turn her over his knee and spank her for not being properly respectful in front of the other staff or push her up against the wall and fuck her. This was what it had been like the first time, this was what he had missed. The truth was she was still the best sous chef he‟d ever had. Most would have missed that mistake but she‟d seen it and caught it before it left the kitchen, not when it came back. He shook his head, still furious at the server for fucking up the order but he had to admire Lily for catching it. In the newness of the situation, orders got crossed, tempers did, too and organized chaos ensued. Oddly enough this was what Evan loved, the madness, the scents, the aromas, the urgency, but the precision, too. And, like him, Lily could smell when a sauce was just right. Or when it wasn‟t. The people for the twenty-top table arrived, actually several tables joined together into two long ones. Unfortunately not all them, the rest were on their way. A decision had to be made. Evan ordered more bread to be set up and sent their salads out to those that had arrived to hold them, requiring the staff to adjust on the fly. He swore at a cameraman who got in the way of an order going out, nearly toppling four meals. The twenty-top became twenty-four as friends joined the party unexpectedly. It was a delicate balance, a carefully balanced choreography. He barked as he always did, tempers flared but somehow they got through it. It was almost startling, the shift from full out to nearly dead stop as the last coffee and dessert orders went out. Clean-up began, dishwashers churned, grills were scraped and scoured as they last meal order went out, the floors were swept. Waiters and waitresses began to leave, tired and grousing or laughing, depending on how their night had gone. The camera crew was already left. Lily dragged her cap off, scrubbed her scalp with her fingers and shook out her hair as the last of the wait staff departed, their tables empty. Still, she looked around a little uncertainly. Evan was nowhere to be seen. Neither was Dylan. She went to toss her whites in the laundry bin, wondering where they were, nodding to people as the last stragglers left. From out of nowhere, it seemed, Evan caught her around the waist and dragged her into the pantry, his mouth on hers before the door had completely closed. “It‟s the only place where there aren‟t a thousand cameras, only one or two,” he said, as his mouth devoured hers and his hands found her breasts beneath the thin t-shirt. He ground his hips against hers. “God I wanted you. I love it when you snarl at me. If the cameras aren‟t shut down already, I hope Dylan is watching this.” He gathered her t-shirt in his hands, stripped it over her head. In a moment his mouth was back on hers as his hands crushed her breasts, his thumbs pressed hard against her nipples trapped within her bra. Uncertainty gone, her hands were just as wild on him, tugging on his shirt, desperate to get to his hot skin. The truth was, his rages, his passion, had always turned her on, fired her. She‟d always wanted them unleashed on her, as he had the night he and Dylan had come to her restaurant.

As he did at this moment. Her pants were thrust down, tossed impatiently away. His own were pushed just far enough to free his cock as his hands clamped over her ass and he lifted her to drive her back against the wall. She braced one leg on a lower shelf as he slammed his cock inside her so hard and fast her head snapped back. Desperately she bit back a cry as he drove his shaft into her and passion exploded through her. She clung to one of the shelf supports as he tugged down her bra and feasted on her breast, sucking hard, his hips slamming into her to drive his throbbing cock deep into her aching pussy. It was wonderful, overpowering, passionate and wild. It was Evan. Just what she wanted. His hips pounded against hers. He grabbed a handful of her hair to make her look at him. “Come for me,” he growled. “I want to see you come. Give it to me, Lily.” Her pussy clenched around his thick member at his words and then he ground his hips against hers, shifted them to work his shaft deep inside her, make her feel every long thick inch of him inside her, feel the head in the very depths of her pussy. Throbbing, pulsing. Bracing one hand on his shoulder, her eyes locked on his, she came, biting her lip desperately to keep from crying out as she shuddered nearly uncontrollably. “Yes,” he growled in triumph and drove his cock just that little bit deeper. He came himself, his shaft throbbing as his cum spurted into her, as it filled her while she shook. Evan let his head fell to her shoulder, kissed it and breathed her in as she trembled, the muscles inside her still pulsing around his cock. “What the hell did I wait for?” Evan asked himself as she held him, stroked his hair, brushed her cheek against it. The tenderness of her gesture shook him. Lifting his head, he looked at her, kissed her gently. “Are you okay?” Lily smiled, let out a breath, lifted a hand to touch his face. “I‟m just fine.” That smile told him everything he needed to know. Evan smiled back as they straightened themselves, drew her back into his arms for just a moment before they stepped out. For a moment he just looked at her then lowered his mouth to hers, caressed it with his. Opening the door, they found Dylan waiting patiently, leaning back against a table with his arms and ankles crossed. He grinned at Evan, lifted an eyebrow and offered a hand to Lily. She took it, feeling a little uncertain. “Yes, I was watching,” he said to Evan, “but you know I like to do that.” Evan grinned. “I do.” Heat shot through Lily at the thought of Dylan watching them as Evan fucked her and her nipples pebbled again, her pussy tightened. She looked at him and her gaze dropped to his slacks almost involuntarily. There was no doubt he was aroused, his cock twitched, pressed against the material. Lily‟s eyes widened as she looked at him. “There‟s no one here but us,” Dylan said. He‟d made sure of it. Rather than searching the restaurant as the rest of the staff wandered out he‟d done what he usually did when he looked for Dylan, keyed each monitor until he found them. Then he‟d been transfixed.

The confined space and limited light had created a chiaroscuro of pale skin and shadow that focused all the attention on the two of them, the play of light over the curve of Lily‟s breast, the long line of Evan‟s back. He‟d watched as Evan yanked down her bra to reveal the lush fullness of her before he sucked her nipple into his mouth. Seeing her body arch, the look of abandon on her lovely face as Evan‟s muscles had flexed with each thrust, had had Dylan as hard as a rock. For that matter, he still was. It was what he loved, watching, but not as much as having. He tugged hard on her hand so she stumbled against him, dropped his hands to her ass to pull her mound hard against him, ground his throbbing cock against her. She smiled as he kissed her, he felt her lips curve against his. “You did good, both of you, by the way,” Dylan said as he tugged her t-shirt from her pants, slid his hands beneath it to her warm skin. “The brass will love it. The fans will try to decide who to root for, you, Lily, or Evan.” He smiled. “I loved watching you two fuck afterwards,” he said, his cock going harder at the memory. It had been so incredible to see and he ached to take her himself, to live the vision. “My turn.” He pulled her tee shirt over her head but this time he snared her hands in it, caught them behind her back with it. With one hand he flipped her bra open again, tugged the cups down. With a grin, Dylan looked at Lily and said, “Evan knows I like it too.” “Sorry, Dylan,” Evan said, settling back to watch, almost wishing he hadn‟t already come. If he‟d known Dylan was waiting outside, he‟d have held back, stretched it out. Still, there was plenty of time, if he had anything to say about it. “I shouldn‟t have kept her all to myself.” “You know,” Lily said, her tone and expression exasperated and amused. “I‟m right here. I‟m not a dessert you‟re splitting between you.” “Aren‟t you?”Dylan asked softly, licking his lips at the sight of her delectable breasts. Bending his head, he licked her nipple like an ice cream cone, one breast and then the other, with long, slow strokes of his tongue. “God, you‟re delicious,” he said, as he hooked his thumbs in her slacks, drew them down and let them slither to the floor. He cupped her mound, pressed his fingers against the delicate folds between her thighs, felt her dampness and Evan‟s cum there. Her pussy flexed against his fingers. Watching her eyes, he slid two fingers inside her, his thumb against her clit, fucked her with his fingers as his thumb slipped over her throbbing nub. Lowering his head, he nipped and bit at her nipples as her hips bucked against his hand to push his fingers deeper. Her brown eyes blurred, her mouth went soft. She moaned, her pussy clenched. “Tell me again how you‟re not our dessert,” he murmured as she quivered. “Dylan,” she whispered, trembling. “Tell me,” he said, stroking his fingers inside her. It was driving him crazy. Reaching down, he unzipped his pants to free his throbbing cock. Her eyes dropped to look at it. He stroked it and she licked her lips. Dylan went harder in an instant, glanced at Evan in excitement and anticipation. “Suck me, Lily?” Her gaze lifted, met his. She didn‟t ask for her hands to be freed. With a small smile she sank to her knees. “Oh, fuck me,” he said softly, as she looked up at him. She did, leaning forward to draw the broad head of his cock into her warm, wet mouth.

The sight of her on her knees in front of him with her hands caught behind her like some slave girl, her hair tumbled over her shoulders to brush over her breasts, was incredibly erotic. Pleasure filled him, his cock swelled instantly, grew even harder if that was possible. With a groan, he watched his thick shaft disappear between her pretty lips. Control vanished, he caught handfuls of her hair and drove his cock deep into her mouth, so deep he could feel her throat close around the head. A burst of pleasure went through him and for a moment he held her there as she quivered, her throat working. The sensation was delicious, incredible. He drew back, then drove his cock deep again, as her tongue slid over him. Dylan loved watching this, watching his cock slide between her lips and feeling her throat close around the head at the end of each stroke. “Beautiful,” Evan said. Dylan looked up to see Evan watching, his eyes intent. How many women would do this, let them both do her? If he hadn‟t been half in love with her before, the fact that she loved it as much as they did would have been enough. “Fuck yes,” Dylan said, the sensation of her mouth around his cock maddening, his hands closed more tightly, fucking her mouth harder and deeper. “God, Evan.” Evan watched as Dylan‟s eyes closed and he groaned, his cock buried deep in Lily‟s mouth as her hands twisted in her makeshift bonds. The sight was incredibly erotic. Now he understood some of Dylan‟s fascination. He‟d never thought to share Lily but after that first night and watching now, he couldn‟t imagine not sharing her as Dylan closed his eyes and groaned deeply. His hands were locked in Lily‟s hair, held her as his hips thrust uncontrollably as he fucked her, as he came in her sweet mouth. Lily‟s throat worked as she took him. She swallowed and Evan knew Dylan‟s cum was gushing down it. A rush went through him at the knowledge that she would do the same for him. In one movement, Dylan pulled her up into his arms, closed his eyes for a moment and then kissed her forehead while he held her close. She lifted her head, licked her lips, gave Dylan a look and then Evan. “Well, if I‟m your dessert, then you‟re both mine.” If Evan hadn‟t just come, he would have come at that.

Chapter Six A limousine waited for them outside the restaurant as Evan locked the doors. Lily had wondered about that, about how they got around. The parking lot had been empty. She smiled and waved as she recognized the limo driver who had picked her up at the airport. With an answering smile, he tipped his hat to her. She had no idea where Evan and Dylan were taking her and she didn‟t much care as long as she was with them. They settled her between them on the broad leather bench seat at the back. Dylan reached for glasses as Evan opened the little refrigerator and brought out the champagne. As Evan poured, Dylan said, “To a successful partnership. It‟s already off to a great start.” Handing Lily her glass, he kissed her. Tapping his glass to Dylan‟s, then to Lily‟s, Evan leaned over and kissed her, too, draped an arm over her shoulders. Dylan‟s hand caressed her thigh. She‟d changed back into her dress at the restaurant, tossed her work clothes into the laundry bin with the table linens and other wash. Otherwise wherever she was going would smell like day-old food. The car pulled up to a modern glass tower apartment building. It was impressive, all tinted glass and steel. Each level was replete with balconies for exquisite views of the city. To her surprise though, there was also a doorman. As Evan gave her a hand out, Dylan tapped on the driver‟s window. “Same time tomorrow?” The man nodded, tipped his hat. “Sure thing, Mr. Bryant.” Lily looked from one to the other of them, but neither said anything. “Mr. Taylor, Mr. Bryant,” the doorman said, inclining his head as he held the door for them. Evan said, “This is Lily Cavanaugh, Joe. You‟ll be seeing a lot of her.” With a nod and a grin, Joe nodded. “Can‟t beat seeing pretty ladies. Welcome, Miss Cavanaugh.” Lily smiled at him but eyed Evan and Dylan suspiciously. She had an inkling of what they had in mind and excitement bubbled in her veins. The lobby of the building was impressive, the floor marble with stretches of white carpet, a few chairs scattered in casual groupings and planters full of live plants. She didn‟t say anything as they rode up the elevator, afraid to voice either her hopes or her fears. The doors opened onto a floor with a single wood-framed set of doors. The whole floor was theirs. On the floor before it was an envelope and a single blighted rose. A limp and faded flower, the petals drooped, the tips of the petals were tinted black in the way some florists set white roses in colored water to tint the tips. The stem looked as if it had soaked in black paint. A dead rose. At the sight of it, Evan swore softly, his expression harsh and stony, his eyes ice cold. Dylan went still, his jaw locked. Both were suddenly tense. Evan looked out the windows at the city but Lily knew he didn‟t see them. Concerned, she looked from one to the other. “Evan?”

Dylan answered as he keyed his Bluetooth headset. “A few of Evan‟s fans are a little obsessive. He picked up a stalker a while back. Threats were made. That‟s what‟s in the envelope. One time his car was keyed, another time all the tires were flattened.” “That‟s why I don‟t have a car anymore, why we have a service,” Evan said, bitterly. He stalked away down the hall, the muscles in his jaw tight. “He didn‟t want a bodyguard, for a lot of reasons,” Dylan said, quietly. “So, until we could figure out who it is and find a way to stop it, I moved in. For a while, it stopped. We thought it was over. The arrangement worked so I stayed.” “Obviously we were wrong,” Evan snapped, over his shoulder. Dylan said, in response to the question in his ear, “Joe, we‟ve had a visitor.” Seconds later, the elevator rumbled. The doorman stepped out. As he saw what awaited, his face turned pale and sick. “I swear, Dylan, nobody rode to this floor today, I was watching. There were no strange faces.” Dylan shook his head. “It‟s not your fault, Joe. They probably rode up to another floor and then rode down. Or got someone to let them in. They could even have come in through the freight doors while something was being delivered.” Looking helpless, the doorman held up his hands. “We‟ve got a camera on it but I can‟t watch it all the time. Evan, Dylan, honestly, I‟m sorry.” With a clap of the hand on the shoulder, Dylan said, “Again, not your fault, Joe. You can‟t screen everybody who comes in the building. Just log it for the record and call the cops.” “Will do,” Joe said, whipping out a handkerchief to gather up the envelope and rose. He carried them downstairs as Dylan opened the door to the apartment. Evan stalked inside, clearly still furious. Dylan gestured to Lily to precede him, his hand dropping to the small of her back. Whatever expectation she might have had about a man‟s glass and steel paradise disappeared when she entered. It was still a very masculine space, but not in an obvious way. A broad gas fireplace almost filled one wall, a good simulation of a real one, with a wood mantel stretched over it and a coat of arms displayed above it. The furniture grouped before it was made of sueded leather in a rich, warm brown, the carpet a golden beige over dark marble, the nap thick and comfortable. For a Scotsman so proud of his heritage the only plaid in the room was a throw across the back of a couch, but she suspected that it was his family‟s tartan. The far wall was nothing but tinted glass, the expanse softened by live plants. Beyond it was darkness, the lights of the city and the stars. Evan‟s characteristic temper didn‟t hit until the door closed behind them. “What the fuck, Dylan? It was supposed to be over.” Picking up a discarded glass he turned and threw it at the wall of windows in a fit of fury. “I don‟t know,” Dylan said in answer, shaking his head. “So did I.” His voice sounded sick and angry. Turning to look at him, at Lily beyond him, Evan said, raking his hand through his hair, “Even worse, what are we doing dragging Lily into this?” It had been months since the last rose had arrived. He‟d thought it had been over. Helpless fury exploded through him. He hated being helpless, at the mercy of whoever wanted to taunt him. He‟d taken enough of that as a kid, suffered the scathing looks as an adult. The rage boiled over.

“I‟m a chef, for Christ‟s sake, an overblown cook. I worked for what I‟ve got, used my looks and whored myself to get here. I‟m not somebody‟s idea of a wet dream,” he shouted. “People make assumptions because I‟m famous, as if I‟m not a human being. I‟m a real person. What the hell did I do to deserve this?” Dylan looked at Lily, as helpless as the doorman. “Nothing, Evan, you didn‟t do anything. It‟s their problem, not yours. I‟m here, now, though,” Lily said, going to him. “That can‟t be changed.” “Sure it can,” Evan snarled, turning on her, shaking off her consoling hand. “You have that bloody escape clause I arranged to give you so if you wanted to run away from me again you could. You can. That‟s what it‟s there for. Use it. Get the hell out.” Until that moment Evan hadn‟t known how much it had hurt when she left. It had hit him at every level, personal and professional. She‟d blown up on him in front of his staff, his people, something he couldn‟t tolerate. She‟d left him no choice but to fire her. He loved her, but she‟d given him no choice. Instead, she‟d left. Quit, throwing her apron in his face. No one had ever walked on him, he‟d always been the one to leave. No one, that is, but Lily. All that bottled pain, that anger and frustration, boiled out. He wanted her to rage back, to give him a target, a focus, someone to shout at. “Go ahead, leave. That‟s what you‟re good at.” Evan looked at Lily. Her face had gone stark white, her eyes suspiciously bright. Lily went still, frozen. She blinked. Her breath caught, hearing it, the anger and the pain, the truth of both in his voice. “Oh fuck,” Dylan said, sitting down abruptly on the steps that led down into the sunken living area. “That tears it.” “If that‟s what you want,” Lily said, softly, looking at him. It felt as if she couldn‟t breathe. Her chin trembled, another betraying gesture. She lifted it, defiantly, her breath hitching. She turned, walked toward Dylan and the doors. “Where am I supposed to stay?” she said. Miserably, Dylan said, glaring at Evan. “Here. You were supposed to stay here. Evan, why don‟t you just kick the damn dog while you‟re at it?” “We don‟t have a damn dog because my stalker might kill it,” Evan snarled, striding to the windows, rage still burning inside him and pain. “It doesn‟t matter,” Lily said, her voice thick. “I can find a hotel.” Evan turned on his heel, looked at her. She was so beautiful. Leaving again. “Go, then,” he shouted. She flinched. Lily never flinched. She fought back. Her eyes were too big, too bright, her expression was shocked, stunned. “Just for general information, I never wanted to leave,” she said, quietly. “You never gave me any indication you wanted me to stay. How was I to know what you wanted it if you never told me? I was so in love with you and you paraded one model after another through that kitchen. It killed me. I wanted you so badly. I knew it was stupid, every other woman in the world wanted you, too. Why in the world would you want me? You could have stopped me but you didn‟t. You could have come after me, too, but you didn‟t do that either. You let me go.” Lily went, snatching up her purse as she walked toward the door.

“I didn‟t want to leave then,” she said, as tears shimmered in her soft brown eyes, “and I don‟t want to leave now. It‟s your choice, Evan.” The door closed behind her. “FUCK!” he shouted, picking up another glass, fighting the pain and flung it at the door in fury. It shattered in an unsatisfying explosion of glass.

Chapter Seven Breath hitching, Lily heard the crash of glass behind her as the door closed. She ducked reflexively. It seemed appropriate punctuation for what just happened. At least she‟d kept herself from saying the next words, the ones on the tip of her tongue, words that would have betrayed her, shamed her. That she loved him still, that she‟d never stopped loving him. Dylan‟s voice, muffled, came through the doors. “Evan, go after her.” “You go after her,” Evan shouted, the sound oddly thick. Then, more distantly, as if he‟d turned and walked away. “You go after her.” “I didn‟t say it,” Dylan uncharacteristically shouted. “I wasn‟t the one who sent her away.” She stabbed at the button for the elevator, fought back tears. Hearing his voice sent a shard of guilt lancing through her. It wasn‟t fair that she had to leave him too but it was both of them or neither. She certainly couldn‟t work on the show now. Everything she‟d done, everything she‟d changed to come here, all of it had been for nothing. Once more Evan had chased her out, chased her away. She‟d been stupid to come, stupid to believe it could be different this time. She bit her lip, hard, to hold back the burning in her eyes. The elevator doors slid open. Behind her was silence. She stepped through the doors, turned. The door to the suite remained closed. With a hiss the elevator doors slid shut. A single tear slipped down her cheek. What would Joe the doorman think if he saw her crying? One more of Evan‟s disappointed bimbos? She had too much pride for that. After that last fight there‟d been times when pride was all she had. She dashed the tear away, held onto control, refused to think. The elevator reached the lobby. Clearly surprised, Joe turned to greet her. “Leaving so soon, Ms. Cavanaugh?” Then he looked harder at her, sharper. More gently, he said, “What can I do for you, ma‟am?” She smiled a little at the understanding in his eyes, the compassion in his voice. “A cab to the nearest hotel?” Tipping his hat to her, he nodded. “I‟ll wait outside,” she said, softly. “Of course,” he said. “It won‟t be long, I promise. I‟ll keep an eye on you.” “Thank you, Joe,” she said, knowing her eyes were too bright again at the unexpected kindness. “No problem, ma‟am.” It was a windy night. She stepped out of the building into the cool night air, holding her hair back from her face with one hand as she stepped out into the darkness and shadows, the noise of the traffic and looked up at the cold, impersonal buildings around her. But not at the one behind her. They blurred. A tear slid down her cheek. Not so bad. The cabbie wouldn‟t think anything of it. Evan. Dylan.

Pain twisted her heart. She‟d hoped, wanted to believe this time would be different. Her chin quivered and another tear fell. She tried to hold them back. She wouldn‟t sob in the cab, she wouldn‟t, she told herself. One day, it had taken only one day for disaster to strike. It wasn‟t a cab that pulled up, it was the limo driver from Dylan‟s service. The same one who‟d picked them up earlier, the one who had come to the airport. Had it only been that morning? The memory of Evan‟s passion in the pantry, Dylan‟s expression when they stepped out, tried to surface, but she banished it. At least the driver would be a friendly face. She walked toward the car as he got out. He smiled, tipped his cap and opened the door for her. A friendly face indeed. Despite her best intentions, her chin quivered and another tear slid down her cheek. An arm hooked around her waist, caught her up, turned her. Startled, she looked up into bottomless blue eyes. The wind whipped his hair. She hadn‟t heard him coming, hadn‟t really heard him call her name. “Evan.” Looking down into her face Evan saw the tears on her cheeks, trembling on her lashes. His heart wrenched. The truth of what she felt was there in her eyes, in the tears that now streamed down her face, tears she tried not to let him see, turning her face away. “Fuck, Lily,” he said, catching her face in his hands, brushing her tears away with his thumbs. “Why did you go? I thought you would fight with me.” Bewildered, she said, “You said you didn‟t want me. You told me to go, to leave.” Fresh tears spilled down her cheeks. “I never said I didn‟t want you. Never. All I‟ve ever wanted was you,” he said, fiercely, and kissed her. “You‟re the only one who‟s not afraid of me, the only one who fights back. Earlier tonight I told you to go fuck yourself. Did you do that? No. You know how I am when I‟m angry. It took me too long to find you again, Lily. How could you leave me so quickly?” Her chin trembled, she fought back tears even as she laughed. “I didn‟t want to. You told me to go,” she said, stubbornly. Looking down at her face, Evan said, softly, “And you believed me? Don‟t you know better?” Then she did laugh, her chin trembling. Cupping her face in his hands, he said, “Haven‟t you figured it out yet? I love you, Lily Cavanaugh, I‟ve been in love with you since the first time I saw you. From the very first day you walked into my life. Stop running away from me. Stand and fight, shout at me, swear at me, but I‟m not letting you go, ever.” From the darkness, another voice spoke. “Neither of us are.” His arm tight around her, Evan turned with her. Dylan stood there, the wind tumbling his hair, his hands in his pockets. “Neither of us, Lily. I love you too.” Her heart wrenched at the expression on his face. When she‟d left, she‟d left him, too, and she‟d known it. He hadn‟t deserved that. Fresh tears burned in her eyes as he held out a hand to her. Evan‟s hand tightened around her waist, not to keep her away, but to give her support, to take her to Dylan as she reached to take Dylan‟s hand. “I‟m so sorry, Dylan,” she said.

She hadn‟t known how he felt until he told her but it was there in his eyes for her to see if she looked. He smiled, walked toward them to take her outstretched hand. “It‟s both of us or neither of us, Lily. Haven‟t you figured that out, yet?” Reaching up to cup his cheek once he was close enough for her to do it, she laughed, weakly and sniffed. “I haven‟t figured out the rules, yet.” Sweeping her up in his arms, Evan tossed her over his shoulder. He smacked her bottom and she yelped. “Neither have we, Lily. Neither have we,” he said. “Just love us both,” Dylan said. “That‟s all we ask.” Looking back at him through her hair, she smiled. “Haven‟t you two figured it out yet? I already do.” She waved goodbye to Bob.

Chapter Eight Lily stepped out of the bathroom as she scrunched the dampness from her hair with a towel. For a moment she could only stand there in breathless wonder, looking at Evan sprawled on the bed. There were times when his sheer physical beauty just caught at her. Knowing there was so much fire underneath it, so much passion, only made him more beautiful to her eyes. Just the sight of him made her heart leap and her pussy grow damp. The early morning light was soft on the strong lines of that amazing face, those gorgeous cheekbones, the firm lines of his mouth. Those seemingly bottomless blue eyes were closed, his dark hair was tousled with sleep, the sometimes fierce expression was relaxed. Propped up on the pillows with with his legs loosely spread, every part of his long, firmly muscled body was exposed to her, chest, abs, everything. Smiling softly, she leaned a shoulder against the doorframe as she dried her hair and just admired the view. It was one of the few times she could catch him this relaxed, at ease. Catching Dylan when he was unaware affected at her the same way. Although his body was leaner, more lithe, the sight of him always warmed her soul and sent a jolt of heat straight to her pussy. In his own way Dylan was as intense as Evan. With Evan everything was on the surface while Dylan was the still waters that ran deep but fast. God, she loved him so much, had loved him for so long. The sharp swell of emotion made her eyes sting, her heart swell. His beautiful blue eyes opened and he smiled at the sight of her, his expression softening. Her heart turned over gently as she answered his smile with one of her own. Evan very much appreciated the view. Very much. She looked incredible standing there wearing nothing but the towel she dried her hair with. Lily. Their Lily. Just the sight of her naked made him hot, made his cock thicken. With a grin, he crooked a finger at her. Dropping the towel, she smiled and came. He laughed as she walked across the room toward him, all that glorious damp hair tumbled around her white shoulders, her breasts full, nipples hard and tight and then crawled on her hands and knees between his legs. More like stalked to judge by the predatory look in her eyes. He laughed, but the sight also made him hot, his already stiffening erection growing harder. Then she licked the inside of his thigh, sucked lightly. “Lily.” With a groan he closed his eyes, tightened his hands in the bedclothes. Licking and nibbling, she made her way up between his legs, each little flick of her tongue, each nip only made him harder, drove him mad with sensation. She nuzzled his balls, sucked on one lightly and he moaned. Her hair swept over his groin to tickle and torment. It was incredible. He loved it. He opened his eyes, looked past her to find Dylan standing in the doorway watching, wearing only pajama bottoms. Dylan stroked his own thickening cock beneath the silk as he watched. It made Evan harder knowing Dylan was watching as Lily licked and tormented him. Every muscle in his body was locked in delirious bliss. Heat washed through him as her tongue found the broad head of his twitching shaft.

She looked up to see him watching and her lips curved in an almost feline smile of satisfaction, very wicked, as her hand slipped around his throbbing member and lifted it. Very deliberately, she flicked her tongue along the slit in the head. With a groan, he felt a little pre-cum spurt and flushed hot as her tongue flashed out to stroke it up. To taste it, savor it, her eyes closing in pleasure. “Fuck,” he whispered. The bed moved as Dylan stretched out beside them. “Beautiful,” he said, his eyes on Lily. Lily‟s eyes went to him, twinkled as she grinned and then looked back at Evan mischievously. Evan hadn‟t thought he could get any harder but it seemed he could, his erection pulsing in her hand at that look. With her gaze fixed on his, she slowly took his cock into her mouth. He moaned, watched as her lips slid over the broad head, slipped down his shaft. Her hand came between them to cup his sac, to squeeze his balls lightly as her hot, wet mouth closed over his hardening shaft. When she moaned around him, her mouth suddenly taking him deeper, Evan opened his eyes. Dylan knelt behind Lily, kissing the base of her spine, the little nexus of nerves that lay there. He looked at the mirrored walls of the closets, watched as Dylan slid a hand between her thighs. His gaze met Dylan‟s in the reflection. Lily whimpered around his cock, her mouth taking him deep again as she jolted at Dylan‟s touch, her hand closing around his balls. As he watched, Dylan kissed and caressed her. Each movement, each touch, drove Lily‟s mouth up and down on Evan‟s cock. She twitched, moaned around it. If the feel of it, the pleasure of it, had been amazing before, it was incredible now. She jolted, took him deep and her throat closed around the head of his cock. Evan arched as pleasure shot through him, his balls tightening. He was beyond being able to do anything but feel Lily‟s hot wet mouth working him, sucking on him. It was delicious, wonderful. Lily‟s universe shrank down to Evan‟s cock in her mouth, the musky scent of him, the slightly salty taste of his precum in the back of her throat. She was only aware of his hard beautiful body taut with the pleasure she gave him and Dylan‟s warm mouth on her skin, his fingers on the delicate tissues between her thighs. He stroked, teased, tormented her as she did the same to Evan. That hand slid through her dampness to her clit, teased there ever so lightly and then slipped between the delicate folds of her lower lips to play. A finger slid inside her, slid out, slid in again as his lips moved over the base of her spine. Delicious little bursts of pleasure shot through her with each brush of his lips, each twitch of his fingers. She jumped a little each time, taking Evan deeper into her mouth. The taste and scent of Evan filled her senses, the thickness of him filled her mouth. She loved the taste of him, was suddenly hungry for him. Releasing his balls, she balanced on her hands to take him deep into her mouth, until she could feel his cock all the way at the back of her throat and hummed with pleasure as it throbbed. He groaned deeply.

She opened her eyes to see him stretched, rapt with pleasure, his hands fisted in the covers. As she backed off a little, she sucked and the muscles in his belly tightened. Dylan‟s finger found her g-spot and she moaned as pleasure of her own moved through her. Beneath her, Evan shifted, his hips thrust his cock swiftly into her mouth. The jolt of Dylan‟s touch sent her mouth down over Evan‟s cock again. It was like a duet, her mouth on Evan, Dylan‟s fingers on her. Then she felt Dylan‟s cock at the entrance to her channel, his hands on her hips. He thrust a little, asking. Suddenly as desperate for his cock to be inside her as for the taste of Evan in her mouth, she pushed her hips back toward him. Dylan‟s thick, heavy cock drove into her. She moaned around the head of Evan‟s shaft. It was more than Evan could take, the hot wet feel of her mouth around him, that soft, desperate moan. Releasing the bedclothes, he buried his hands in her hair instead and drove his cock deep into the sweet damp velvet of her mouth. Carefully gentle, although it took every ounce of control, he fucked it, his shaft filling it, his balls drawing up tight. “I‟m going to come,” he groaned. Her mouth closed around him, sucked. Ecstasy shot through him. Watching in the mirrored wall, Dylan saw Evan‟s cock go deep into Lily‟s mouth even as his own drove into her pussy. To him there was nothing better than this, watching Lily take Evan as he took her, seeing his own thick cock sliding deep into her pussy. As he liked feeling her twitch, watching her mouth as it sank over Evan‟s shaft when he touched her. He hadn‟t been able to take his eyes off the mirror, enraptured by the play of light and shadow over Evan‟s straining muscles, over the contrast of Lily‟s pale skin with Evan‟s darker, his own a shade between. The three of them were the perfect composition, their skin and hair in contrast to each other, his and Evan‟s harder bodies against Lily‟s softer curves. He was rapt in the sights and sounds, in watching Lily's body tighten as he took her, in hearing her soft moans. He wished he could find some way to convey the slick silken softness of the folds between her thighs, of how it felt to drive his cock deep into that tight dampness. Evan arched, driving his cock deeper into Lily‟s mouth reflexively. Her hand tightened on his hip as she took him, moaning with her own pleasure. Watching Evan, knowing he was coming, watching Lily‟s throat work, was all it took. Dylan drove his own cock into her with a shout. Lily trembled on the edge as Evan‟s cock pulsed. She felt his hot cum surge into her mouth just as Dylan‟s shaft drove deep. She was coming herself, ecstasy washing through her as Evan‟s cum filled her and Dylan‟s throbbing shaft sent his spurting deep into her pussy. Unable to do anything else, she swallowed, quivering with pleasure, the thick salty taste of Evan filling her, his hands close around her head. Dylan‟s hands were tight on her hips, his hips thrusting against hers as he emptied into her. She loved this about them, the three of them. It turned her on to suck on them but it left her pussy aching and needy. It was wonderful to have the other satisfy that itch. Evan‟s hands closed around her arms, drew her up into his as Dylan sat back, then came to join them while Evan curled up beside her on his side. He brushed a kiss over her forehead, her lips. Dylan mirrored him, propping his head on one hand, idly playing with her nipple with the other. Little shots of pleasure went through her with each touch.

Dylan smiled, “I came to tell you we had good news but the view got the better of me.” He‟d always been a bit of a voyeur, he was a director, it was almost in the job description. If it didn‟t look beautiful and sexy to him, it wouldn‟t to the viewer either. That now he could also participate was the best of both worlds. The desire to film the three of them was strong but he didn‟t really need it and it was too dangerous. There were the mirrors, though. Dylan loved the visuals. If he‟d been a little bit of a voyeur before, he was much more so now. Both of them looked at him, smiling, Evan‟s hands drifting over Lily, too, caressing her breasts, sliding over her belly. One of her hands rested on his thigh. The other stroked Dylan. “So,” Evan asked, “what‟s the news?” Dylan grinned. “Ratings are up, the network execs are very happy. We put out a press release saying so.” What he didn‟t tell either of them was that at least part of the reason the ratings were up was because of the obvious personal and sexual tension between them. Largely because he played it up, directing the cameras to catch them in those unguarded moments when Evan looking at Lily with that brooding, Heathcliff-on-the-moors expression on his face, those laser-blue eyes locked on her. Or Lily when she glanced over her shoulder at Evan surreptitiously, her lips slightly parted. Much as Dylan had caught her looking at him while he worked out in the gym or sometimes in the reflection of a surface. Once he‟d made love to her after catching her looking at him like that, her hands braced on the apartment windows as he took her from behind. He‟d watched her face in that reflection, his hand on her exposed breast as his cock slid in and out of her, watched the ecstasy on it as he made her come, her pleasure driving his own. Clearing his thoughts, unsurprised to find his cock semi-hard, he continued, “The critics love it too. They‟re starting to talk Emmy.” With a grin at Lily, he kissed her. “You have your own fan club, my heart.” Amused, Lily said, “Really?” She wasn‟t sure how she felt about that. Her cookbooks had been popular and had brought in a nice, steady income. So she‟d already had her own fans. Evan had also expanded his menus to include hers. This, though, was a little different. Especially in light of Evan‟s stalker, who‟d been curiously quiet since that last visit. Evan‟s fingers drifted over her belly, her abs, found the spot just inside her hipbone that made her muscles tighten. A rush of heat went through her. “And don‟t forget we have that charity event tonight,” Dylan said. “We have to take Lily shopping.” It had been on the schedule but Lily hadn‟t said anything about it, even though she wanted to go. Neither had they. As sous chef, though, it was her job to take over the restaurant when Evan wasn‟t available even though it wasn‟t a show night. Worse still had been the thought of Evan and Dylan going without her. It was too much like those times in the past when she‟d watched Evan parade the models past her. Still, she said nothing. Until now as Dylan‟s words caught her off guard. “What?” she said, startled and bewildered. “I can‟t go, who‟ll take care of the restaurant tonight?” Evan looked at her, surprised. “I asked Mark to take care of it.”

His previous sous chef, Mark, had deserved better than to be pushed out so peremptorily but he‟d done well running Evan‟s original restaurant. Seeing her expression, the hurt in Lily‟s eyes, Evan sucked in a breath, realizing what had happened, what she‟d probably thought. He drew her close. “Oh, hell, Lily, I‟m sorry,” he said and bowed his forehead against hers. “It never occurred to me you wouldn‟t know, wouldn‟t understand. I just thought you did. Of course, you‟re going with us.” Confused Dylan frowned. “Of course you‟re going with us. Why wouldn‟t you?” Then he caught the expression in her eyes. “You didn‟t know. Oh fuck. We never said. Damn, Lily,” he said, apologetically. “It never occurred to me either. You‟re part of us now. Part of all of it.” Now he understood why she hadn‟t talked about it, why she hadn‟t done the female shopping thing, even though he knew she didn‟t have anything appropriate to wear. Curling in close, his hand on her belly, he leaned down to kiss her forehead too. “We love you, Lily,” he said, looking down into her eyes. “Get that, Lily. We love you. Where we go, you go.” Lily looked up at them, at the warmth in Dylan‟s eyes, the intensity in Evan‟s, and the love in both and then a different sensation moved through her as Evan‟s long, nimble fingers toyed with her clit, teased it. She looked at him, at the wicked smile that curved his mouth. “That‟s not fair,” she said. “I think we have to make it up to her,” Evan said as if she hadn‟t spoken, with a glance at Dylan. “You know,” Dylan agreed, “I think you‟re right.” Shifting down a little, Dylan licked lightly at her nipple. He slid a hand underneath her thigh, played with the sensitive tissues of her lower lips. Heat moved through her. Looking at them, Lily said, “You know you don‟t have to do this.” “Oh, but we do,” Evan said and brushed a kiss over her lips. Dylan‟s warm mouth closed around the tip of her breast to suck, to nip and nibble. Sharp spears of pleasure shot through her as his fingers slid into her pussy, thrust. His eyes on hers, Evan‟s fingers slid over her swollen, aching nub, slipped down with Dylan‟s to the moisture there, then back up to circle, tease ever so lightly at her clit. Heat flooded her as her muscles went taut. “I love to watch this,” Evan said, propping his head on his hand, “I love to watch you come. Again and again.” Lily‟s mind went blank as Dylan found her g-spot and Evan‟s expert fingers played her clit. Every muscle tightened. Dylan nipped her nipple. She yelped. He bit down lightly, tugged on it with his teeth as his fingers stroked inside her, and Evan‟s fingers exposed her clit so his middle finger could stroke it ever so lightly. She was barely aware of the soft cries that escaped her as pleasure poured through her in heated waves. They drove her up, quivering, trembling. “Evan,” she whispered, helplessly, as they held her on the brink. “Dylan.” “Do you love us, Lily?” Evan asked.

“Oh, yes, I love you,” she sighed, looking up into his brilliant blue eyes, into Dylan‟s warm brown ones. “I love you both desperately, madly.” Evan pressed a kiss to her forehead, Dylan to her shoulder as their fingers stroked. Ecstasy streaked through her, her body going taut as her orgasm exploded through her. “I love watching this,” Evan said, “I love watching you come. I love you. We both do.” ***** Usually shopping was not one of her favorite activities but it wasn‟t as much of a chore with Evan and Dylan supervising, although it was interesting to watch the haste with which the clerks moved to help. Or the looks she got as one or the other of the men would stop to give her a kiss, or when Evan sent her back into the dressing room with a sharp slap on her ass, or Dylan ran his hands over her hips to check the drape of her dress. She‟d never seen so many gorgeous dresses. To her surprise neither man deserted her as Dylan pulled strings and got her into one of the best salons in the city. Until they got home, though, neither man had seen the finished product, dress, hair and makeup, all pulled together. Neither had she. Looking in the three-way mirror, she was astonished at what she saw. She‟d never seen this side of herself. With a secretive smile she turned so she could look at her image from behind. She‟d prepared a little surprise for Evan and Dylan for later. With satisfaction, she nodded. Nothing showed. It might be a little uncomfortable from time to time but from what Evan and Dylan said they‟d be standing most of the evening. She found them both in the living room. It was a black-tie affair, so both men wore tuxedos and both looked absolutely astonishing. Evan was dark, Byronic and brooding, that volatile energy pouring off him, his blue eyes brilliant. Dylan was bright, the darkness of the tux emphasized his fairness, made his eyes seemed even more golden. “Could someone give me a hand,” she said, turning a little to show her exposed back, “and zip me up?” Both turned and smiled as they came to meet her. She felt like a fairy princess as she walked toward them. “I think that can be arranged,” Dylan said, sliding the zipper up before twirling her around so that they could see the dress from all sides. “Amazing,” Evan said, kissing the back of her hand and then her forehead. “You look perfect, Lily,” Dylan said. “Absolutely lovely.” The admiration in their eyes was all she needed to see. Knowing what lay beneath the dress only added to the excitement of the evening. When they reached the hotel where the charity ball was taking place, Evan offered her a hand out, Dylan a moment behind him. Deliberately, both men tucked her hands in the crooks of their elbows as cameras flashed and voices shouted, calling to them. Evan covered her hand with his, patted it. “You‟ll get used to it.” “Wait until Emmy night,” Dylan said ominously as they walked inside, but he smiled in anticipation. This would be Lily‟s first big event, he knew, a good opportunity for her to get used to the attention of both the legitimate press and the paparazzi. Evan, of course, was long used to it.

Neither of them had any worries about Lily, though, she was tough and she looked wonderful with her rich brown hair tumbling to her shoulders in thick waves. The vibrant gold of the gown brought out the gold and hints of red in her hair, and deepened the brown of her eyes. It draped sweetly between her breasts, over her bottom, the simple shape emphasizing her curves as the fullness of the skirt swirled around her legs. She looked classic, like a movie star from the forties, glamorous. He tucked the memory of that thought away in his mind, an idea stirring. Something for another day. Then Lily laughed as Evan introduced her to someone and she became honest, open, approachable. The woman they knew. A number of eyes were on her, the relative unknown in a sea of fame. Dylan had leaked elements of their stories to the press, with their consent, so most people knew who Lily was and had been but not what her true relationship to them was. No one knew where she lived that they knew of, not yet. Once it leaked out, things would get interesting. It would eventually they knew. They had agreed to keep everyone guessing, to keep the secret of their relationship to one another going. Most people would assume she was or would soon be seeing one or the other of them but not that she loved them both. With luck they could keep the mystery going for years. It was Evan, though, who as the star of the show swept her out onto the dance floor first. It was something the he and Dylan had discussed, an attempt to make up for the past and for the misunderstanding that had hurt Lily‟s feelings. The simple romance of the gesture couldn‟t be denied as Lily looked up into Evan‟s blue eyes and his arm closed around her in the dance. He looked down at her, a roguish smile teasing at his mouth. “Do you know how much I want to kiss you right now?” he asked, his eyes glinting. She smiled up at him. “As much as I want to kiss you?” Cameras flashed around the room. “I think we‟re being watched,” he said, eyeing the flashes. “Ya think?” she teased, feeling the eyes on them as much as he did. Deliberately, he dropped his hand lower on her back, pulled her hips a little closer. He grinned. “Get that smirk off your face, Chef Taylor,” she said, shaking her head at him. “Make me, Cavanaugh,” he said, and she laughed. “You‟re enjoying this,” she said. He nodded sharply at her and his grin turned wicked. “I am. For once we‟re in control of what‟s being said about me. Just the three of us, you, me and Dylan, no one else. For years people have whispered, rumored, said things, made assumptions about me. Talked about me. Am I gay, am I straight? Am I dating this one or that? Dylan moving in only complicated things. So yes, I‟m enjoying it immensely.” A touch of his characteristic anger kindled in his blue eyes. As if she had a hair out of place, he smoothed it back, as an excuse for touching her and to calm himself, she knew. “Do you mind?” he asked, his eyes darkening in concern. Tightening her hand on his, on his shoulder, letting everything she felt show clearly on her face, she smiled and shook her head. “No, Evan, I don‟t mind,” she said. “Good,” he said and brushed his cheek against her hair.

When the music stopped they caught up with Dylan where he stood talking among a group of people. Here he was clearly in his element. Without thinking about it, Dylan casually slipped an arm around her waist, drew her close to press a kiss to her temple as cameras flashed. He finished what he was saying before he introduced her and Evan to those they hadn‟t met. Some clearly recognized Evan. Eyes went back and forth in question as Dylan kept his arm around her and Evan kept his hand on her hip, but they were all too polite to ask. Comfortably ensconced between them as they talked, watching the eyes roam from one to the other of them, Lily carefully kept amusement from reaching her own. At the next waltz Dylan smiled, excused them and swung Lily out onto the dance floor while Evan watched them go, apparently unperturbed, and kept talking. “By the time we‟re done tonight every talk show in the country will be talking about this tomorrow morning,” he said, grinning every bit as wickedly as Evan, if for different reasons. She laughed and shook her head at him. “You‟re incorrigible.” He gave her a wink and lifted an eyebrow at her suggestively. “I am, my heart, but you knew that about me.” “I did,” she said, with a smile. “As long as we‟re happy what does it matter?” he said. She smiled at him, enjoying the dance. Dylan was every bit as good a dancer as Evan, in an age when few men learned to dance. “But it does seem Evan needs rescuing,” Dylan said, his mouth tightening in anger, turning her so she could see. A woman had Evan trapped, cornered almost literally, corralled by a planter on one side and the woman standing in front of him. To step past her, he‟d have to be noticeably rude to the point of pushing her aside, something that wouldn‟t go unnoticed. The woman was tall, slender, her face a seemingly perfect mask, her blue eyes nearly a match for Evan‟s. Her hair was as dark as his, flowing to her shoulders in perfect waves. Her dress was a brilliant red, the perfect match to her lipstick and the color in her cheeks. In heels, she was nearly the same height as he was, lissome and elegant. She was beautiful and so was he, except that his eyes were empty, distant. Hers weren‟t. Standing as they were they made a beautiful couple. Something inside Lily twisted, a touch of envy. Lily recognized the woman immediately. Gloria Talbot. She‟d once been one of the country‟s top models, and although she still worked the runways now and then the last time Lily had seen her she‟d been a judge on one of the cable modeling shows. Gloria Talbot‟s features were almost expressionless, save for her eyes, which burned hotly. Her body language was possessive. Her hand was on Evan‟s forearm, her body close against his. For a moment Lily hesitated. Dylan caught her chin. “He‟s too polite to shake her off where people can see. Evan loves you, Lily. I love you. Look at his face, Lily.” Evan‟s expression was stony, his jaw tight, his eyes dark, averted. He looked fierce, furious and implacable. Only politeness held him there, he clearly didn‟t want to be forced to make a scene. “Let‟s go rescue the poor bastard, love,” Dylan said, kissing her forehead and giving her a gentle swat on the butt to send her on her way.

If there was one thing that was certain, since her arrival Lily had become both the focus and the balm to Evan‟s temper. She gave him a mock glare but she smiled and went, with Dylan close on her heels. It was also clear that Evan‟s fragile temper, held in check only by their location, was fraying rapidly. He looked ready to bite Gloria‟s head off. His voice low, Dylan said, softly, “Don‟t do it, Evan. Not here. No matter how much she deserves it.” With a hand at the small of her back, he propelled Lily forward. Whatever Gloria Talbot had been saying stopped the minute Lily and Dylan drew close. Gloria glared at Lily, hotly. The minute Evan‟s eyes met Lily‟s, relief washed over his face. That was all Lily needed to see. “Lily,” Evan said. The relief in his voice was barely hidden as he slid an arm around her waist, drew her close to kiss her cheek, just missing her mouth. The gesture was deliberate, she knew, possessive and provocative, designed to put the other woman on notice. “Evan,” Lily said evenly enough, her voice soft, and smiled. His lips moved to her ear, brushed over it in a quick caress as he whispered, “Thank you.” She lowered her lashes and smiled at the caress and the sentiment, a shiver going over her. Cameras flashed. She turned her head to look at Gloria Talbot. “We haven‟t met,” Lily said, gently, knowing exactly how the other woman felt. Gloria Talbot‟s blue eyes went cold, her expression icy. If looks could kill Lily would have been dead a thousand times over. His voice emotionless but his arm tight around her, Evan said, “Lily Cavanaugh, Gloria Talbot.” Gloria Talbot ignored Lily, looked at Evan. “This isn‟t over, Evan.” “Yes, it is,” he said, tightly. She looked at Lily‟s offered hand then at Lily before she turned on her heel and walked away. “Manners,” Lily murmured, “she gots none.” Her light words startled a chuckle out of Evan and he pulled her into a quick hard hug. “Lily,” he said, grinning, “you‟re priceless.” Just to see that cold expression driven off his face was enough for her. They went in to the late dinner, sitting with Lily between Evan and Dylan, who greeted her with a kiss, while Gloria Talbot glared at them from across the room. “Good job,” Dylan said, in her ear. She smiled. Evan gave him a nod. “Thanks, Dylan.” “What are friends for, Evan,” Dylan said, “but to rescue each other from dragons, or dragon ladies?” Evan covered a laugh at the description with a cough but it lightened the evening considerably. Certainly enough to enjoy the meal and the dancing afterward.

It rapidly became clear that Gloria had decided Lily was to blame for her failure with Evan. The first time Gloria Talbot tried to corner Lily, an unpleasant expression on her face, Dylan rescued her, greeting Gloria warmly with a smile. It became a game. The next time it was Evan, smiling broadly. “Cavanaugh, staying out of trouble?” he asked as he swept her into a deep dip, kissing her soundly and thoroughly as a dozen people watched and applauded. More cameras flashed. He winked at his nemesis. “Gloria.” Lily slapped his arm then elbowed him teasingly as he pulled her close, her eyes twinkling, “Back off, Evan. Behave yourself. You‟re in public,” she said and slanted him a mischievous look from beneath her lashes. The attending members of the press loved it. Gloria did not. They walked away, well aware of Gloria Talbot looking daggers at both of them. “You said what?” Dylan asked, laughing when they recounted the episode for him as they tumbled into the limousine at the end of the night. They were all a little drunk, on success as well as alcohol. “Wonderful. Oh, that‟s perfect, Lily,” he added, chortling. “They‟ll all be wondering what he does with you in private.” He and Evan both shucked their tuxedo jackets, tossed them onto the seats at the front by the driver, loosened their ties and unbuttoned the top few buttons of their dress shirts. “Privacy, Bob,” Evan said, his eyes on Lily, his gaze skimming over her as the screen by the driver went up. “I know what I do want to do, I‟ve been waiting all night to get Lily out of that dress.” As he slid his hand inside the deep drape between her breasts to cup one of them, his eyes closed in pleasure. “I love this,” he groaned, “I love the feel of your breast in my palm, the weight of it there.” Dylan‟s hand slid beneath her dress and up her thigh, over the silk clad skin beneath. They hadn‟t spared on her underwear. Although they hadn‟t seen it on her yet, saving it as a treat, they both knew she wore the thinnest of bras, enough to just hint at her nipples and only a scrap of panties, garter belt and silk stockings. Evan lifted her breast free of the bra and dress and flicked her tightening nipple with his thumb. He cupped it and looked at Dylan, knowing Lily watched. She quivered in anticipation as she slid her hands into their laps to find them both hardening. With a smile, Dylan lowered his head to lick the tender tip Evan offered him as he unbuckled his belt, unbuttoned his pants to let her play. On the other side of her Evan did the same before he slid his free arm behind her. Dylan slid his arm lower, urging her hips forward, opening her to him. Her hands dove inside their slacks to find their cocks, freed them to stroke. As Dylan slid his hand farther up her thigh, he drew her nipple into his mouth, sucked on it. Evan released her breast to Dylan‟s tender ministrations and cupped her face instead. He kissed her softly, tenderly, while Dylan sucked on her nipple, his fingers teased at her clit. Her pussy throbbed, pulsed. The ache there deepened. Dylan unsnapped one garter and then the other. Sliding off the seat, Dylan pushed up her skirt then slid her panties down her legs, shoving them into his pocket as he knelt. Gently he coaxed her hips forward and spread her thighs so her cleft was bared to him.

Evan cupped her face in his hands as Dylan knelt between her legs, slipped his hands beneath the cheeks of her ass to cup them and pull them forward to the edge of the seat. As Evan kissed her, Dylan‟s tongue drove deep into her pussy. She moaned into Evan‟s mouth as his hand slid down her throat to curl around her breast, catching her nipple between thumb and forefinger. Dylan‟s tongue licked upward to flick her clit, circle it as she gasped and writhed, then slid down to glide between her lower lips as his hands held her hips still. She bucked, tried to escape the relentless tide of pleasure he was sending through her. She whimpered, her hips pumped against his imprisoning hands. Brushing her hair back with one hand, Evan kissed her sweetly while his agile fingers teased her nipples until they were rigid. Each pinch and twist sent a bright bolt of pleasure to her core. A click of the microphone warned they were getting close to the apartment. Both men grinned as they straightened themselves and Lily up. Her cheeks were flushed, her eyes were bright and her nipples were hard points beneath the thin material of her dress. Evan draped his jacket over her shoulders as Bob came to hold the car door open and Dylan helped her out. “You‟re going to kill me,” she whispered to Dylan. Brushing a kiss across her cheek as Evan tipped the driver and followed, he whispered back, “No, we‟re going to send you to heaven.” She laughed. With a nod of thanks to Bob, they wrapped their arms around her waist, walked inside and into the elevators with a tip of the head to Joe. No sooner did the elevators doors close then the sensual torment began once again. Evan and Dylan both claimed a breast to tease, pinching her nipples beneath Evan‟s jacket as the elevator rose. No sooner had the doors opened then Evan swept her up into his arms, carried her into the apartment and into the bedroom. Jacket and dress were stripped away and tossed aside as he laid her on the bed, her hips on the edge. “Damn, Lily,” Dylan said reverently, looking at her as he went to his knees and spread her thighs again. “You are beautiful.” Unfastening her bra, skimming his hand over the lush fullness of her breast, Evan had to agree. “She is and she‟s ours.” Blowing a cooling breath lightly over her heated flesh, Dylan said, “She is.” Lily gasped. It didn‟t stay cool for long as his hot mouth, a sharp counterpoint to his cool breath, closed over her pussy, sucked. She moaned. “My turn,” Evan said and smiled when she trembled, whimpered, as Dylan moved to settle beside her. Settling between her thighs, Evan spread them a little more with his palms, his thumbs drawing the delicate tissues between them a little further apart to expose her. “So tender,” he said, “so pink, so perfect.” His mouth closed over her labia and his tongue slipped inside to taste her even as Dylan palmed her breast, her nipple rolling beneath it. Lily moaned.

That agile tongue swept inside her. Evan sucked lightly and she cried out. His tongue slid over her swollen folds as his thumbs exposed the delicate nub of her clit. He lifted his head to look at her, his blue eyes brilliant. Dylan slipped an arm beneath her head, lifted it so she could watch as Evan lowered his head once more to her throbbing flesh, sucked on it lightly. Slowly, deliberately, Evan watched her as he explored her clit with his tongue. He slid it around that tender pearl as she trembled and shook, until he found all her secrets, all the places that made her muscles jump, that sent pleasure bursting through her. Then he licked and sucked, teased and tormented as she slowly came apart in his hands. Dylan kissed her forehead, toyed with her sensitized nipples. She was nearly unaware of when Evan‟s finger slid inside her until the pleasure it evoked became almost unbearable. That finger withdrew, slid down to circle the tight rosette of her ass, and then paused. “What have we here?” Evan said, his blue eyes brilliant as withdrew the plug that had been there, stretching her, preparing her for him, for them. “It seems someone had a surprise for us.” He held it up for Dylan to see. With a soft cry, her body tightened in the absence of the thing inside her. Involuntarily, Lily moaned, empty. “Well now,” Dylan whispered, his voice thick, his golden eyes brilliant. “A thank you seems appropriate,” Evan murmured, and lowered his mouth to her. Anticipation shot through her. Evan sucked, hard, on her clit, Lily splintered and her body turned white-hot as her orgasm exploded through her. Just the thought of what she‟d done and the look in Dylan‟s eyes, the anticipation, had Evan as hard as a rock. He needed her, desperately. Needed to be buried inside her. In one motion Evan surged upward, drove his rigid cock deep into her pussy as Lily cried out his name. Pleasure nearly overcame him. “Lily, god, you‟re so sweet,” he growled as her inner muscles pulsed around him. Remembering the plug he‟d removed he pulled out quickly. “Dylan. God. Take her.” Evan wanted to take her sweet tight ass first. Watching, Dylan was more than glad to oblige. With a smile, he buried one hand in her hair and claimed her mouth too. Holding her there, his other arm around her waist, Dylan rolled her on top of him and drove his hips up to impale her on his shaft. He wrapped his hands around the firm globes of her ass to spread them for Evan as she moaned and her body closed tightly around his cock in anticipation. Excitement rushed through him at the idea of what Evan was about to do. Apparently it did Lily, too, as her pussy gloved him, stroked him. He looked in the mirror to see Evan behind her, reaching for the lubricant, his cock twitching. A rush of excitement went through him at the thought of watching it disappear in Lily‟s tight hole. Lily felt cool liquid touch the tight rosette of her ass, then it warmed as a long finger slid inside her, then another. There was a fullness as he worked them inside her. Once more she was empty as he removed them. There was a sense of pressure as Evan moved behind her, and she felt his cock against her and then he slid the broad mushroom head of it inside her, just the head. The sense of fullness there drove a deep groan from her. Carefully, he worked it deeper inside her, teased her with it as she moaned. Then he drove slowly deeper. She shuddered as he filled her, inch by slow inch.

Dylan shifted beneath her, distracting her as he wallowed his cock inside her with a moan of deep pleasure, and then he thrust steadily, holding her tightly. Pleasure of her own washed through her in deep waves as they both fucked her, pussy and ass, slow and steady. She was so tight, so sweet. Evan hadn‟t imagined it would feel so good. They‟d been preparing her for this night, the night they could have her at the same time, Lily sandwiched between them, for some time. To have her surprise them with the last and largest plug was astonishing. He looked in the mirror to see her face flushed and glowing, her lips parted as she gasped, her hands braced on the bed as Dylan looked in the mirror to watch as Evan‟s cock slid into Lily‟s sweet virgin white ass. Evan watched, too, the mirror giving him an angle so he could see every inch of his erection disappear inside her. He rode her, the motion deliberate, pulling almost out, sliding in, knowing what it would do to Lily, knowing how much Dylan liked to watch. Lily quivered beneath him, her eyelids fluttering as she moaned, deeply, with each powerful thrust. “I can‟t hold on much longer, God, Lily, God, I love you,” Evan groaned, and then he couldn‟t hold on at all as exploded and his cum pumped into her. She cried out his name, Dylan‟s. As his hips drove against her, he growled her name into her ear as his orgasm shot through him and he emptied into her, helplessly. Watching Evan‟s cock sink into Lily‟s virgin ass had Dylan hovering on the edge, feeling it move inside her while her hot inner muscles gloved him, flexed around him with each of Evan‟s thrusts, nearly sent him over. When she trembled, when her back arched as she came, calling their names, all hope of control evaporated. His eyes went to the mirror and watched as Evan‟s hips locked against her, his ecstasy visible on his face as Lily quivered, whimpering. He had one last sight of Evan thrust deep into her in the mirror and then he looked up to see the delirious pleasure on her face. Control vanished as his hips drove his cock deep into her. She cried out again when he came. His arms shaking, Evan fell to the side, taking Lily with him carefully. Dylan sprawled next to them. Almost at the same time, they both asked, “Are you all right, Lily?” Her doe-brown eyes blinked, cleared a little. “Damn,” she said, smiling unsteadily. “What are you going to do to me if we win an Emmy?” “I‟m thinking trapeze,” Dylan said, feigning a speculative expression. Lily gave him a startled look as Evan chuckled. Smiling, Dylan laughed and said, “Kidding. Would you consider fuzzy handcuffs?”

Chapter Nine It was the first day of filming a new segment for the show, something Evan had wanted to try before Lily had arrived, but with the ratings uncertain Dylan hadn‟t been certain the network would go for it even with his support. Riding the tide of speculation and attention after the charity ball, the network was now all for getting Evan and Lily out of the restaurant and into someone else‟s. Another cooking show had done something similar, fixing up failing restaurants but Evan wanted to put a new spin on it, helping to start new ones. They had already done a test on it as publicity for the show, asking people with start-up restaurants to submit applications to win a sponsor-paid makeover. Free appliances, free furniture, everything, if it came together. With those plans already in the works, they decided to add one little upgrade, Evan and Lily‟s advice and assistance, unbeknownst to the lucky winner or winners. Dylan, of course, had set everything up ahead of time so everyone was ready to go, waiting outside the restaurant for the show as the limo pulled up. Two touring buses sat in the parking lot. A film crew also waited while the rest of the crew loaded equipment onto and into the second bus. A large gray tarp covered the bus in front. Evan eyed it suspiciously. Grinning, Dylan said, “I ordered a new wrap for the bus. Well, actually, I just ordered a new bus.” Folding his arms, Evan looked at him and lifted an eyebrow. “Really.” “You‟ll like it, Evan,” Dylan said. Watching them, seeing the glint in Dylan‟s eyes, Lily shook her head. This promised to be good. “Bob, you might as well just leave the bags there,” she said, turning to their driver to lay a hand on his arm. “Thank you.” He tipped his cap to her but she was already turning away to watch as Dylan walked toward the bus. Elbowing each other surreptitiously, the crew were gathering quickly in the background. Seeing them, Lily smothered incipient giggles. “Well,” Dylan said, his mouth twitching as he tried to restrain laughter, “we needed a new one. A bigger one. Bus, that is, since Lily is joining us. One with a picture of you and Lily on it.” Evan continued to eye him. “Uh huh.” “I think it turned out really well.” Evan gave him a look. “Just pull the damn thing.” With a yank of the rope, the tarp slithered to the ground. For a moment there was breathless silence as everyone waited to see what Evan‟s reaction would be. The picture was very good. Evan was at his most severe, jaw tight, his eyes snapping, clearly ready to blow and yet he still managed to look incredibly handsome. He and Lily appeared to be back to back. Lily had her arms crossed and her cheeks were flushed. She was clearly out of patience but she was glancing over her shoulder as if at Evan and she had just the slightest hint of a smile curving her lips. Over their heads was the title of the show, „Cooking with Class, featuring Chef Evan Taylor‟. Below his name had been added in smaller letters, „and Lily Cavanaugh‟.

Evan looked at it, surprised. He considered it, then, slowly, he nodded. It suited the new sensibility of the show. “I like it.” Applause broke out from the crew, some ran to hug Lily to her delight, before everyone piled on the buses. Inside, „their‟ bus was surprisingly plush, with a large bedroom at the back and two smaller sleeping areas to each side―which would keep the question of their relationship with each other going―along with two bathrooms with showers, a kitchenette and a little sitting area. The „master‟ suite actually took up the entire back of the unit. The see-through advertising wrap covered all three of the large reflective gold windows, so the occupant or occupants could enjoy the scenery as they lay in bed but no one could see inside. That was a good thing in many ways. The bed dominated the room, filling nearly the entire space from wall to wall, save for a small area at the entrance. It even had its own bath on one side of the doorway and a closet on the other. One look and Lily burst into laughter. “That‟s a very big bed.” Evan eyed it before he glanced at Dylan, who grinned and shrugged. Looking at him, Dylan choked back a chuckle but cleared his throat instead. “I, ah, wanted to be sure we had enough room,” Dylan said, blandly, as he visibly tried to repress another grin. “People will think I have a bed to match my ego,” Evan replied, looking at it and shaking his head but some interesting visuals were going through his mind. Especially at the sight of those windows. His cock twitched a little at the idea of the three of them on that bed, naked, with Lily between him and Dylan as the light poured over them. A rush of heat went through him at the thought of her soft cries. Fighting back a laugh, Dylan said, “Well, now you do.” “Funny, Dylan,” Evan said but he smiled. “Besides,” Lily said, eyes twinkling, “who said it‟s yours? It could be mine.” Wrapping an arm around her, Evan swept her to the bed, pinned her underneath him. “I do,” he mock-growled. “I‟m the star of the show and don‟t you forget it, wench.” She wriggled underneath him, laughing. “Wench, am I?” He mauled her breasts beneath her shirt playfully. “You are.” Dylan stretched across the bed above Lily‟s head, laughing. “Back to that ego thing, are we?” Evan smiled. “Perhaps.” He was already hard and getting harder. Taking a breath, he shook his head and grinned. “Seeing this, I wish we had a little more time.” He ground his hips against Lily‟s mound as she smiled up at him and Dylan regretfully. Standing, Evan gave both Lily and Dylan a hand, pulling them both to their feet. “Time to get this show on the road,” Dylan agreed with a sigh and a wry grin. The minute the bus with its new banner pulled up in front of the chosen restaurant there was applause from those waiting. When Evan stepped out, though, there were screams and squeals of feminine delight. When he paused dramatically before reaching back to give Lily a hand off the bus there were shrieks of disbelief from the owners. Released by Dylan‟s nod the owners ran up to them. One sharp look from Evan saved him from the hugs of joy they lavished on Lily instead, to his relief. All of it caught on film by the ever-present camera crew, of course.

Evan hadn‟t changed completely, he had little patience for ineptitude and even less for fools. The situation, of course, was guaranteed to produce both. When he saw some of the compromises, shortcuts and changes they were either willing to make or decided to make to the plans he and Lily designed, he went ballistic. Having been through a similar process when she designed her own restaurant, Lily understood some of them, agreed with others and found a few of them baffling. She just looked at Evan and shook her head at those last. They went hammer and tongs over the compromises, though, with Lily landing on the side of the owners, reasoning for things that could be put off while Evan insisted on quality from the start. As all of that was expected, only the recipients of Evan‟s fury were surprised when it was unleashed on them. The cameras caught the moment on the second day when Lily finally got exasperated with arguing with him, flipped him off to the delight of the onlookers and stormed away to the trailer, Evan right behind her. Dylan called a break and went after them to referee, waving the cameras off. So the cameras didn‟t catch the moment when Evan caught up to Lily inside. Every time she argued with him, those seemingly soft brown eyes turning hot, turned him on as much as it infuriated him. Grabbing her arm, he spun her around, yanked her t-shirt up and her bra down to devour her breast. He shoved a hand up inside the leg of her shorts to impale her pussy on his fingers, ramming them into her, unsurprised to find her wet and waiting. He knew now it turned her on as much as it did him. There was definitely a feeling of „punishment‟ to what he did to her, a need to dominate, to win. Here, in this arena, he could, they both would. With his free hand, he unsnapped her shorts. She moaned as he spun her around against the windows, yanked her panties and shorts down and drove his cock up inside her hot wet pussy from behind. Reaching around her body, his agile fingers tormented her clit. She cried out and braced herself against the glass as he hammered into her. When Dylan joined them Lily buried her mouth in his shoulder to muffle her shuddering cries of pleasure as Evan fucked her hard, his fingers pinching that sensitive nub until she came, violently. She shuddered in his grasp, hips bucking. Still, he didn‟t stop. The feel of her tight channel pulsing around his shaft, closing around it, shattered his control. With a shout, he came, his hips slamming against hers. He let his head fall to her shoulder. Kissed it. “God, you drive me crazy,” he said, brushing his lips over her ear. “You‟re right, though. Next time just tell me when I‟m being an ass.” With a smile, Lily looked over her shoulder at him. “Now where would be the fun in that? I love it when you go all fierce and passionate on me.” Sighing, she looked at Dylan, “Sorry, but thank you.” “What are you sorry for?” he asked, grinning, stroking his cock beneath his slacks. “I like it when Evan goes all fierce and passionate on you, too. You‟ll make it up to me later.” She grinned. It was true, Evan knew, she would, while he watched. As they stepped back out of the trailer, Evan calmer, Lily‟s face flushed and Dylan amused, Evan was content to let everyone jump to their own conclusions. They would anyway. By the end of the third day the kitchen had been gutted of everything unusable, the new appliances had been put in place and everything cleaned. The renovation of the front was well under way and the actual lessons in cooking were complete.

It was a relief to walk into their apartment building, the job done, Joe piling their luggage on a cart to take up by the freight elevator. “So what do you think?” Dylan asked as the elevator doors shut. With a weary smile, Evan answered, “I think we need to get out of these clothes.” He started with Lily‟s, to her laughter, stripping her t-shirt over her head. “I agree,” Dylan said, chuckling, unbuttoning her shorts. “But about the restaurant?” “We‟ve given them a good start,” Evan said, cupping Lily‟s face for a kiss, his thumb beneath her chin to tilt it up. “Now it‟s up to them to maintain it.” She smiled as he kissed her then held her for Dylan to kiss too. Dylan was more than glad to oblige. The elevator doors hissed open. Evan scooped Lily up in his arms as Dylan gathered her clothes. With Lily in his arms Evan turned, and then he froze. His jaw set hard and tight. Seeing the look on his face, she followed his gaze as he slowly set her back on her feet. Lily sighed. Beside them Dylan stood, grim-faced. He handed her her clothes, both he and Evan watching around them as she pulled them back on. On the floor in front of the door were a black rose and an envelope. The door to the apartment was open, the area around the lock splintered as if someone had taken a crowbar or tire iron to it. “Stay behind me, Lily,” Evan said. He didn‟t want to leave her out in the hall unprotected. “Dylan?” With a nod, Dylan stepped up beside him as he hooked his Bluetooth headset around his ear and speed-dialed 911. “Right behind you, Evan,” he said grimly. Evan kicked the door open. It flew back. That was enough to get a good view of the living room. It was a shambles. Everything breakable had been broken, the LCD TV screen had taken particular abuse but nothing much had been spared. Looking around, Dylan said, quietly, “If I didn‟t know better I‟d say you had another one of your temper tantrums, Evan.” Evan glanced at him, the look dry. “Funny. Thanks, Dylan.” With a tense smile, Dylan said, “You‟re welcome.” But his comment had lightened the tension. All the doors were open. Through the ones to the office, they could see Dylan‟s laptop had been flung across the room to smash into the windows, wires trailing from it like a comet. Dylan‟s head tilted as the 911 operator answered and he responded to the voice in his ear. “Yes, I‟d like to report a break-in, related to a possible stalking.” The door to what had been Dylan‟s bedroom was open, too, but there had been little in it to destroy. Once Lily had arrived he had joined them in the master bedroom. It was clear which room had taken the most abuse. Their bedroom. “No,” Dylan said into the headset, his face set and furious. “It appears the person or persons involved are no longer in the apartment. It‟s destroyed but empty.” Looking around Evan went cold. It seemed every drawer, closet and surface had been cleared systematically, the contents tossed across the room almost as if someone had been looking for something. What it was he didn‟t know. Or if they had found it.

“We haven‟t touched anything,” Dylan said, in response to the operator. “We watch the crime shows too.” It was the bed though that was the most chilling, the bed the three of them shared. Someone had found Evan‟s letter opener „knife‟, a decorative blade with his family‟s crest on it, and used it on the pillows and mattress, ripping through the thick layers of padding. Lily just looked at it, her expression a little sick, her mouth tight. “Oh Christ,” a voice said from the main doors. They all turned. Joe, with their luggage was standing by the damaged entry. “I swear to God, Evan,” he said, “no one came up here.” Grimly, Evan said, “Stay there, Joe, don‟t come in and watch where you step.” His voice sounding sick and furious, Joe said, “I saw it, Evan. The envelope and the flower outside. Cowardly bastard.” “Yeah,” Dylan said into his headset, rolling his eyes at the 911 operator, “I‟m staying on the line, but it‟s a mobile, no trace. The address listed for it is correct.” He looked at Evan. “They‟ve got officers on the way and a detective.” Drawing Lily into his arms, Evan looked around angrily and shook his head. Rage bubbled inside him but there was no outlet. He wanted to fight, but how did he fight a ghost? Lily laid a hand on his chest in consolation and looked up at him. He sighed and laid a hand over it. There wasn‟t anything to say. As per protocol, the first officers on the scene searched the apartment, verified that the perpetrators weren‟t in any of the rooms, confirmed that assessment and the need for crime scene personnel. Holding up his badge to the officer on the door, the man who walked in was a tall, grizzled veteran of the force, his well-worn face and deep-lidded eyes reflecting that he‟d seen just about everything and a fair amount of it had been disappointing. He had the envelope in his hand, sealed now in a plastic bag. He slapped it against his leg as he looked around before he joining them in the office. Evan had a hip on the desk, his arm around Lily as she leaned back against him with Dylan on her other side. Leaving their luggage in the anteroom outside, Joe had gone to call someone to repair the door. “Hi,” the cop said, his voice deep, a little mellow. “I‟m Detective Martin Baker. I won‟t pretend I don‟t know you, Mr. Taylor, my wife loves your show.” A little surprised, Evan smiled thinly. “Thank you.” With a slightly sad smile, Detective Baker said, “And sorry to meet you under these circumstances, Miss Cavanaugh, but you brighten the show for me. And I don‟t know this gentleman, but I‟m guessing you must be Mr. Bryant.” “Dylan directs the show,” Evan said. “When I started having problems with a stalker, Dylan moved in.” “Protecting your investment?” Baker said. “We‟re friends,” Dylan said shortly. Eyeing the body language between them, Lily bracketed by them, Baker lifted an eyebrow but said nothing.

“Okay,” he said. “I know you probably don‟t, and no one wants to think anyone they might know would do anything like this, but any idea who might have?” Evan shook his head, Dylan matched him. “If I had even the slightest idea I would have told someone,” Evan said, bitterly. “I have no idea who they are or why they targeted me. What have I done that‟s so terrible it gives them the right to do this, except work hard and be successful?” Lily turned to look at him, lifted a hand to touch his face, looked deep into his eyes as he looked down at her. “It doesn‟t have anything to do with you, Evan,” she said. “It‟s them, not you. They‟ve got the problem. You‟re just the target they‟ve picked. They don‟t see the work, the hours you put in, the care you take.” She had and she‟d also done it herself, run a successful restaurant, so she knew what it took. “All they see is that you seem to have everything, looks, charm, a successful restaurant, passion, an incredible mouth, and you‟re sexy. Did I mention beautiful?” He smiled a little, turned his head and kissed her palm. Even Baker smiled a little. “She‟s right. You don‟t have to be anything but famous. And for some of these people, not even that.” He looked at them and sighed. “All right,” Baker said, “any idea why it might have escalated? It seemed as if it stopped for a while and now it started up again. Any idea why? Anything to do with Miss Cavanaugh there? I sort of got the impression things weren‟t going so great on the show for a while, the gossip said ratings had dropped a little. Now, it seems to have started up again.” Evan stiffened, his arm tightened around Lily but Baker held up a hand. “I‟m not accusing Miss Cavanaugh of anything but the timing is suspicious. She arrives, things start looking up. You‟re happy keeping everyone guessing but you all seem pretty close. Anyone not particularly happy she arrived on the scene? Any exes?” That sparked something. “Gloria?” Dylan asked quietly, with a look at Evan. The detective‟s eyes sharpened. “Gloria who? “Talbot,” Evan said. Dylan gave Evan an apologetic look. “An old girlfriend of Evan‟s from back in the day.” “She was not,” Evan said sharply. “I have better taste. That‟s a fiction she puts out about herself. I won‟t deny I‟ve had my share of romances but she wasn‟t one of them.” The detective gave Evan a look. Evan tightened his arm around Lily‟s waist, kissed her temple. “It‟s no secret I started out modeling,” he said. “When you have a face like mine, it‟s hard to avoid it. It has its advantages, you can make a lot of money fairly quickly if you‟re good and get along and it‟s not a bad life for a while. Travel around the world, party a lot. It has one major drawback, not a great deal of longevity. I saw that, but for me it was just a way to make money. Money to do what I wanted, which was to own my own restaurant, not a celebrity or ego thing, but a good one, a real one. I have.” He smiled grimly at the detective. “A lot of people made the mistake of thinking I didn‟t work for this, didn‟t earn it. Even when I was modeling, I spent my free time in the kitchens of the various hotels, asking questions. One of the benefits of the modeling gig. I went to culinary schools, worked with some of best.” “So you met this Gloria Talbot modeling?”

Evan nodded. “We ran into her recently at a charity function. I told her then I was in love with Lily.” Lily looked up at him in surprise. Seeing the look, Evan smiled and kissed her temple. “Is that what had her looking daggers at us all night?” Dylan asked, amused. His tone dry, Evan said, “She didn‟t believe me. Imagine that.” “Are you?” Baker asked, “In love with Ms. Cavanaugh, that is?” “Between you and I, I am,” he said, smiling at her. He tilted his head at Dylan. “Like him, she‟s one of the rare ones not afraid of yelling back at me when I‟m being an ass.” “So we‟ve seen,” Baker said with a grin and a deep chuckle. “Feisty.” Lily looked over her shoulder at him and smiled. “That she is,” Evan said. “All right,” Baker said. He looked at Evan. “Guess I can‟t tell the wife?” Dylan said, “The network would rather you didn‟t.” “Probably better. Yeah, we‟ll check Ms. Talbot out. We‟ll also be checking out a lot of other possibilities. Anyone around you, anyone with access.” He looked at them tiredly. “Just be aware that an investigation alone can trigger some of these people off. We question the wrong person before we know enough, we got no proof, they might come looking. I‟d advise you to hire some security, maybe even a bodyguard,” he said. Evan shook his head. “I don‟t need a bodyguard.” Scratching his forehead, looking even more tired than he had, Baker said, “I guess you misunderstood when I said it had escalated.” He sighed. “It‟s not just because of that,” he said, tipping his head at the mess in the living room, slapping the envelope against his leg. “It‟s because of this.” With a sigh he held up the plastic bag. It was a particularly good picture, carefully blown up from the one that appeared in the gossip columns of newspapers across the country. In it Evan had leaned down to whisper in Lily‟s ear. Her eyelashes were half-closed and a soft smile curved her lips. It was a intimate pose. R.I.P. had been written over her face. Lily‟s breath caught audibly. Evan tightened his arm around her as Dylan stroked her hair, cupped her neck. “It seems your stalker has a new target,” Baker said. “Over my dead body,” Evan said. “They‟ll have to go through me first.” At almost the same time, his hand tightening lightly, Dylan said, “It won‟t happen, Lily.” His eyes and Evan‟s met. “Whoever it is,” Dylan said, looking at cop. “They‟ll have to go through both of us.” Very quietly Lily said, “And I‟m tougher than I look.” That night, both Evan and Dylan held her close.

Chapter Ten It was late and Dylan was tired. It had been a long night but a good one, if for no other reason than it had been quiet. Nothing had been heard from the stalker but Baker was still tracking down possible leads. It was likely that whoever it was couldn‟t find them. Dylan had moved them to an undisclosed location, a friend‟s house on the beach and forwarded their mail to the network. He wasn‟t taking any chances, not with Evan, and not with Lily. Almost everyone was gone for the night except the three of them. Evan and Lily were in the dining room going over the menus and supplies for the coming week while they waited for him, checking against the supplies they had. He‟d come back up to the booth check to make sure everything was properly shut down and to get his cell phone before they left for night. With everyone he needed to contact here except the network execs, he‟d left it on the console while they shot the show. That way if it rang someone would hear it and he wouldn‟t miss a call but it wouldn‟t screw up a shot. If it was important enough his people would have called for him or told him. As usual, they had left the desk light on for him, he could see it as he went up the stairs. For a minute as he reached the top and looked at the console he could only stare at the equipment while alarm racing through him. This wasn‟t supposed to happen here. His phone was there all right but it wasn‟t alone. There was a black-tipped rose with it. Dylan thought of Lily and Evan, the two people he loved the most in the world, waiting unsuspectingly below. Instinctively he looked around as he started flipping switches on the monitors, searching for them or the stalker, but the light partially blinded him. He reached for his phone, pressed the button that speed-dialed 911. The monitors came on one by one. If the stalker was in the building, he should be able to see him. Out of habit he also sent out the satellite feed. Whatever happened, someone would see it. “Evan,” he shouted, his eyes on the monitors. He wasn‟t sure whether Evan could hear him. The switches for the set of monitors he needed were in the next bank. He would need to go around one end or another of this one. Into the shadows. Every nerve in his body, every sense, was alert. He started toward them. Behind him he heard a voice, one that sent his heart into his throat. Lily. “Dylan, you don‟t have to shout. He sent me to find you,” she said. Fear for her shot through him. Even as he turned to tell her to run, a figure leaped from the shadows. Something burned across his ribs as a large body drove him back against the wall and into a bank of monitors with enough force to knock the wind out of him. His head struck the equipment bank hard enough to make him see stars. His ribs crunched audibly. Pain exploded through his chest and head. Lily reached the doorway just in time to see the shadow of a man leap out of the darkness at Dylan. “Dylan!” she shouted, horrified.

She saw the flash of light on the knife in his hands and leaped for it, grabbed at his arm desperately, to keep him from using it on Dylan as he slid bonelessly down the wall. With a massive shrug the man threw her back against the doorjamb, the knife flashing by her face, slashing across her arm as she threw it up to protect her face. A thin slice of pain seared, shockingly across her forearm. The man‟s face, turned into a harsh mask by the dim light of the desk lamp, turned toward her, his lips drawn back in a snarl. “Lily,” Dylan croaked, whooping for breath, “run!” Blood ran down his face. There was a chance she could draw the man away from Dylan and if she could reach Evan… Lily spun on her toes and darted out the door, her feet clattering on the metal stairs as she raced down them. “EVAN!” she screamed, trying to warn him as the structure swayed and groaned. A hand caught in her hair, yanked her head back, pulled her against a massive male body. “Not so fast,” the man snarled. An arm went around her throat tightly and the knife was transferred into it as he dragged her down the last few steps. He hauled her quickly around beneath the stairs as she kicked and fought. She couldn‟t breathe, blackness hovered around the edges of her vision. Beneath the stairs a row of bottles waited with napkins trailing from some of them. The smell was pungent and familiar. Fuel for the small lanterns on some of the tables. The man tossed the bottles quickly, his movements giving her a little air. Glass shattered as they struck walls and appliances. There was a soft WHOMPF as one of the pilot lights lit the fuel. Lily watched flame blossom. He picked up the last bottle and dragged her toward the dining room doors, and Evan. Evan shot to his feet at the sound of Lily‟s scream and his blood ran cold. Her cry was quickly followed by the sound of glass shattering. He had started for the doors when they slammed open and something was thrown almost straight at him. Automatically, he ducked and it sailed past him to shatter against the entry doors, spraying liquid across them. The smell was distinctive. Alarm shot through him. Even as it did a familiar metallic sound alerted him but he was too late to catch it. That sound had been the top of lighter opening at a snap of a wrist. A simple press of a button and the gas of the lighter had caught. It flew across the room, his fingers just tipped it. It skittered across the floor and the fumes from the fuel went up with a roar. A part of him cursed the company that had made that lighter, and guaranteed that it would not only light, but stay lit. Evan turned to see Lily being pushed into the room. His heart sank even as fury surged through him, and with it the need to defend, to fight. Buy he couldn‟t, not with a knife at her throat. He knew the face of the man who did it, even twisted in rage. It didn‟t make sense. This was the man who was there every morning and every night. He was the man who had driven them to and from the restaurant. Bob. He wasn‟t important, though. There was only one thing important here. “Lily.” Everything he felt for her was in his voice, he hoped she could hear it.

Her brown eyes were huge, the expression in them stricken. Her face was pale, set, her mouth soft. Blood dripped down her arm from a deep cut. Their eyes met. “He hurt Dylan,” she said, then struggled as the arm tightened around her throat. There was no way Dylan would have let Bob anywhere close to Lily. If Bob had reached her, Dylan was hurt, and hurt bad. Evan closed his eyes as his rage ratcheted up that much higher. “Fire,” Bob said slowly, “is the number one danger in a restaurant. I looked it up. It‟s one of the main reasons for accidental deaths in homes, too.” “Why?” Evan asked. He needed to know. Ominously, Evan watched smoke furl across the windows to the kitchen, seep beneath the doors. Behind him, he could hear the crackling from the fire there and he thought he could feel some of the heat from it. He could certainly see the smoke as it slid across the ceiling. A chill went through him. Now Bob‟s first words made sense. The restaurant was on fire. The man had set the entire restaurant on fire. Evan knew where Lily was. Where was Dylan. Lily had said that Dylan was hurt. Fear for them all chilled his blood. “You have everything,” Bob said. “Everything. She‟s so pretty, so nice. I warned her about you but she didn‟t listen. You have everything and I‟ve got nothing. Now you‟ll have nothing, too.” “Let her go, Bob,” Evan said, moving carefully closer. “You want me, come get me. It‟s me you have a problem with, not her.” The burly limousine driver‟s eyes were wild. “No,” Bob said, by her ear. “Back off and back off now or I‟ll cut her throat and let you watch her bleed like a pig.” The knife danced far too close to Lily‟s slender neck and the vulnerable veins and arteries there. Evan backed away, hands raised, fear for her coursing through him. “Bob,” Lily said, “don‟t do this, please don‟t do this.” “Shut up, bitch, you had your chance,” he said and tightened his arm around her throat. “I tried to find you, all of you, but I couldn‟t. It‟s him, it‟s him. He has everything. I have nothing. Why does he have everything and I have nothing? It‟s like everything else. They‟re gonna take my house. They‟re foreclosing on my house, gonna take it away from me. ” “Let her go,” Evan said, looking for an opening, an opportunity, willing to promise anything. “If it‟s me you want, come and get me.” Bob looked at him and sneered. “My wife left me. Said I drank too much. All she did was sit around and read those magazines with men like you inside them. Like I wasn‟t good enough for her. No, I want you to have nothing like I have nothing. I watch you walk around, one lady after another, nice place, restaurant, TV show, every fucking thing while I got nothing.” “I came up from nothing too,” Evan said. “All you had to do was tell me. I would have helped you.” “Bullshit!” Bob shouted. “You‟re nothing like me, nothing, with that pretty face and those fancy clothes. Now you get to not have the way I don‟t have. I‟m going to take it all away from you. I want you to feel what I‟m feeling. I want someone to hurt like I‟m hurting. I want to take away from you everything they‟re taking away from me. Including her… I liked her, I almost had her once, but all she can see is you. You and that other one. Mr. Bryant. My boss says I have to call him that. Like I‟m not as good as he is, as you are. But he‟s gonna die here, too.”

Dylan would never have let Bob take Lily, but Lily had said he was hurt. How badly? The knife flashed ominously close to Lily‟s eyes as the madman gestured and Evan saw fear flicker in them, but her gaze remained locked on his. He couldn‟t help Dylan until he finished this and Lily was free. “Whatever happens, Evan,” she said, quietly, her brown eyes soft, “it‟s not your fault.” “It is!” Bob shouted, gesturing with the knife. “It is his fault. I want him to watch you bleed. I want him to watch you die so he knows what is to lose everything like I lost everything.” Behind Bob, Evan saw the door to the kitchen inch open a little, nearly silently over the growing roar of the fire and Dylan crawl through, nearly literally. He was dragging himself forward on his arms, wincing with each movement. Blood covered part of his face and soaked his side. He panted shallowly, visibly, but his eyes were clear. And determined. Desperately Evan focused his attention back on Bob, for fear of Bob turning to see. In the shape Dylan was in, he wouldn‟t be able to defend himself. Bob would kill him easily. “Let her go, Bob, do a trade,” Evan said. “Lily for me.” Lily looked at him. “No.” “Maybe,” Bob said and smiled craftily. He switched the knife from his free hand to the one around Lily‟s neck, the blade flashing dangerously close around her face again. She winced visibly as Bob reached into his pocket, pulled something out and tossed them to Evan. Handcuffs, bright and silvery. Evan caught them. “Put those on,” he said, switching the knife between his hands, “and I‟ll consider it. Do it fast or I slit her throat.” Bob pressed the blade against her throat. Lily winced as it pierced her skin. A thin trickle of blood trickled down her throat. Behind him, Dylan used one of the booths to pull himself to his feet. His face was white, drawn, the effort clearly costing him. “Evan, no,” Lily whispered, her eyes huge, unable to see what was going on behind her as Evan closed the cuff around one wrist. Lily was horrified, terrified. She knew Bob wouldn‟t let Evan live, he would kill him or leave him to die in the fire. Just the thought of that sent horror racing through her as she realized that was exactly what Bob intended. “Shut up,” Bob snapped and popped her in the head with the handle of the knife, “or I‟ll cut you now just for fun.” Pain shot through her head but it didn‟t matter. She looked at Evan, her heart breaking, terrified for him. His voice oddly excited, Bob said, waving the knife in the direction he wanted Evan to go, “Now, put it around the leg of that table.” Keeping his eyes on Bob, Evan moved as if to obey, aware of Dylan setting himself. Driving with his legs, knowing he‟d only have one shot at it, Dylan launched himself at Bob‟s bulk, aiming for his kidneys, and rammed his elbow hard with as much force as he could muster into them. The blow didn‟t have a lot of power behind it but it had enough.

Bob‟s arms flew open as he staggered, loosening enough for Lily to wriggle free. She threw up an arm to block the knife as he grabbed and slashed at her. Blood flew and then he backhanded her. She sprawled on the floor. Evan was already moving but Bob was crazy quick. All Dylan could do was watch helplessly. The air was thickening with smoke. Grabbing a chair, Evan threw it, but Bob dodged it and dove into him like a football linebacker even as Evan evaded the knife driving for his chest. The force of the tackle slammed him into the support between banquettes and he felt his ribs bend, something crack, as they struck. Bob pounded a fist into his ribs, tried to get the knife turned around. It had been a long time since he‟d done any street fighting but Evan had learned the necessities hard, early and fast. It had been that or get his ass kicked. Now it was literally life and death. And not just his but Lily‟s and Dylan‟s. Lily had crawled to Dylan, one side of her face a mask of blood, and gathered Dylan into her arms with the back of his head propped against her shoulder. Evan drove his elbow down hard, with as much force as he could put into it, into Bob‟s thick neck and back, driving a grunt from the man, and felt him try to bring the knife to bear. Desperate, he drove down again. Bob grunted again, staggered back, his eyes furious. Evan nailed him with a straight jab to the chin and Bob‟s bellow of fury, then sucked his belly in as the man swung the knife at him. He danced away, his eyes on the other man. Smoke curled beneath the ceiling, making it hard to breathe as little threads of fire snaked up the walls of the room. The fire was spreading, the smoke thickening. There wasn‟t much time. The blade slashed but Bob left an opening. Evan hit him with another straight jab that caught the other man on the cheekbone and rocked his head back. With unprotected hands, Evan couldn‟t do that very often or he‟d break every bone in them, but they were the only and best weapons he had. Roaring like a bull, Bob charged. Evan caught the knife hand and tried to turn the force of impact so Bob‟s knife hand took as much of it as he did, knowing it was likely he was going to get cut. They slammed into the tables opposite and Evan felt the blade skip along his ribs, praying that it wouldn‟t slip between them or they were all done, him, Lily and Dylan. Bob shouted as his arm took the force, but even so his hand opened and the knife clattered to the floor. It skittered away underneath the tables. A fist connected with Evan‟s face, splitting the skin over his cheekbone, and drove him back. A distant part of him was aware of Lily crying out as she watched, Dylan propped up in her arms. She had scrambled to her knees. He felt blood run down his jaw. Snatching up the thick linen napkins they used, he wrapped them around his hands to give them some protection as Bob circled him. Bare knuckle fighting was rough on the hands if you didn‟t protect them, for if you didn‟t hit exactly right you risked broken bones. That was why boxers wore gloves. Now, with no knife, the odds were more even.

Fury flashed through him but this time his rage was contained, controlled and focused, unlike Bob‟s mad rage. Bob came in fast, his big hands fisted. Evan knew if Bob got too many shots on him, the man‟s bigger bulk would tell. He‟d have to be quick. Evan hit him, one quick right to the jaw, a quick hard left to the body as Bob grunted and moved back warily. “I grew up on city streets in the parts of town most folks drive through quickly, you ass,” he said, sharply and furiously, then hit Bob again, square on the cheekbone, rocking the man‟s head back. Evan felt something snap in his hand but there was no time. If they were to live, he had to keep fighting. “I have a bit of a temper and a mouth on me, if you hadn‟t noticed. I learned to defend myself in the alleys and on the streets as a boy. You‟re not the first to make assumptions about me. Nor the last.” The angrier he was, the stronger his accent became. Watching him, Lily was reminded once again of the time she‟d compared him to a Scottish Laird, or a wolf, and at the moment he looked as fierce and furious as either. His blue eyes blazed, every muscle in his magnificent body was taut. Blood drenched his side, more spilled from a cut over his cheekbone. A fist sailed toward him, but Evan ducked away. It was a feint, as Bob charged him. This time Evan darted sideways and drove a fist hard into Bob‟s lower back. Like a goaded and maddened bull Bob spun. Evan was implacable, finally with an outlet for his rage. His fist lashed out, caught Bob again, driving his head up and back. Bob‟s arms wind-milled as he staggered backward. Another punch clipped the man‟s chin and Bob went down. His head caught the edge of a table sharply as he fell, his neck twisting at an impossible angle. When he hit the floor, he didn‟t move. They had to get out and quickly. Smoke gathered thick beneath the ceiling. Evan‟s lungs burned. Evan picked up a chair, his hands screaming as he flung it at the doors. With luck, it would shatter the lock and the doors would fly open, letting in fresh air and giving them an escape. The fire would flare up as well, but all he cared about was getting them out. It hit and bounced back. The doors rattled, cracked a little but didn‟t give way. He‟d been afraid of that. At a guess, Bob had either chained them shut or run a bar through the handles to keep the doors from opening. They were locked in, trapped. Kneeling by Dylan and Lily, the air closer to the floor marginally clearer he looked at them both. By the look of him, Dylan was in the worst shape of the three of them, blood ran down his face and soaked his side. He struggled for breath. It wasn‟t because of the smoke. Broken ribs? A lung punctured by the blade? He didn‟t know and it didn‟t matter. Couldn‟t matter. Nothing mattered except getting out. The skin over Lily‟s cheekbone had been split, and her lip, too, and swollen. Her brown eyes looked back at him. In them, he could see she knew how bad it was. Dylan‟s eyes met his. “Bob chained the doors shut,” Evan said.

Dylan closed his eyes, a sick look in them. His mouth moved. “Fuck.” Taking a breath, Evan nodded. “I don‟t think he intended to die here, though, but I could be wrong. So there might be a way out. At least, we have to hope so. I don‟t think we‟ll have more than one shot. Can you walk at all?” “If it‟s walk or die then I‟ll walk,” Dylan croaked. Evan looked at Lily, her brown eyes set. She nodded. The kitchen was ablaze but there were fewer flammables out in the open between the cooktops and the ovens. Fire crawled up the walls. If it got hot enough, the gas lines would go. It was, however, the most likely escape route out. Evan opened up the taps in the big industrial sink. The water was already heated as he dropped tablecloths under the taps, soaking them thoroughly. They were running out of time and he knew it. Pain burned through his hands, but he had to make them work, had to bear it until they were out. “Lily, your hair, soak it down.” Obediently, she ducked her head under the tap. He and Lily took Dylan‟s arms over their shoulders, slid their other arms around his waist, and he groaned deeply. Somehow he held on. They tossed the wet tablecloths over their heads, their clothes. “Ready?” Evan asked. All of them were coughing, the air thick with smoke. “Go,” he said. They ran, heads down as the fire roared and licked around them, the heat like a blast furnace opened, scorching bare skin. Evan hit the door with his shoulder. It gave but didn‟t move. He slammed his shoulder into it again. It rattled, but didn‟t give. He looked at Dylan, his eyes fluttering closed, then at Lily. She coughed but her gaze was calm, resolute. With a nod to him, she set herself. Desperate, furious, rage boiled up in him. They weren‟t going to die this way. Once more he threw his shoulder at the door, he and Lily both, putting everything they had into it. This time it gave way, spilling them out into the lurid light-filled night, staggering, as sirens wailed, tires screeched and people shouted and called. Evan reeled, tried to keep from falling and spilling an already injured Dylan to the pavement outside. Bracing herself, Lily caught their joined weight, throwing herself backward, yet barely kept from being pulled over by them. Firemen ran up to them with air packs, pressed the masks to their faces as they supported them and hustled them away from the building while shouting for assistance. “Who the hell chained the doors shut?” one of them demanded. Another asked, “Is there anyone else inside?” Evan didn‟t hesitate. “Yes, he‟s on the floor in the dining room but there isn‟t much time, the gas lines could go any minute. If you can get in through the front doors…” Behind them, there was a sound like a massive CRUMP, and the windows shattered as the building exploded. Nearly everyone staggered, a few were thrown to the ground.

It seemed there was a sudden pocket of seemingly endless silence around them, and then Dylan groaned deeply. Evan and Lily turned… The firemen rushed to take him, called for the EMTs… Stunned, horrified, Lily stared at Dylan. His face was gray. His eyes were shut. He wasn‟t breathing as they laid him on the gurney. With a cry, she buried her face in Evan‟s shoulder as his arms closed around her, his own eyes bleak, his expression stark. From out of the billows of smoke came the EMTs, a stretcher between them, as timbers from the burning restaurant rained out of the sky, clattering and booming around them.

Chapter Eleven Evan glanced out the gold-tinted windows of the travel bus―their temporary home away from home while their new apartment was remodeled according to their specifications―at the people who milled around beyond it. Fans had gathered early at the barriers. He smiled, knowing the reflective tinting on the outside kept anyone from seeing inside. He was exhibitionist enough to get a bit of a thrill out of it, knowing they were out there but couldn‟t see what was going on inside. If they could… That gold reflective tinting was also an astonishingly good mirror on this side, so what they would have seen was reflected clearly. Lily. The soft light that came through those windows bathed her pale white skin with gold as she quivered and trembled. It gilded the fine features of her face, her fluttering eyelids, and her lips, parted as she gasped. It burnished her tousled hair and the rosy tips of her breasts. She was naked, up on her knees with her legs a little apart and her hands braced against the glass. Her face and body were reflected clearly there. Dylan lay beside her almost on his back, one hand behind his head, smiling a little as he played with her. His free hand cupped her breasts, pinched and teased her nipples. He let his fingers glide down her ribs, her belly, to tease the sensitive nub between her thighs. Her body alternately tightened, quivered and trembled as Dylan tormented her and Evan watched, his shaft buried deep inside her pussy. That tight slick channel closed around Evan‟s throbbing cock as he slowly slid it in and out of her. It was sweet ecstasy and he was addicted to it, to her. He couldn‟t get enough of her, of the sweet sensation of her as she came around him again and again. With one hand against the window to support himself, the other around her waist, he worked his erection around inside her, driving a moan from her. In the mirrored window, Evan watched as Dylan found the little pearl between her thighs and teased it to make her tight channel close even more tightly around Evan‟s thickening cock. She whimpered, her eyelids fluttering as he groaned. “You‟re enjoying this,” she murmured, her voice shaking. As her sweet pussy gloved him, sent a rush of pleasure through him, Evan murmured, “Immensely.” “Definitely,” Dylan said, with a small half smile on his face. Lily moaned as Dylan‟s fingers swirled lightly around her throbbing clit, the pleasure of his touch intense, and her sheath pulsed around Evan‟s long thick cock as it stretched her in smooth steady strokes that sent waves of bliss through her. It was sex by slow delicious torture, by sensual torment, as they made her climax again and again. They loved to do it to her and she loved to do it for them. She moaned. Her body tightened, her nipples ached as Evan stroked into her. Shifting a little Dylan ducked underneath her, enough to draw the tip of her breast into his mouth. His tongue teased at her nipple as his fingers circled and swirled around her clit. His other hand was wrapped around his cock, stroking it, keeping it out of her reach. Pleasure soared through her as her body tightened while he sucked, nibbled and tormented. He drove her up, teased her intentionally and unmercifully. Evan groaned. “That‟s so good. It feels like her pussy is stroking my cock.”

“That‟s the idea,” Dylan murmured. Whimpering, nearly wailing, hovering on the brink, Lily lost all capacity for thought, her inner muscles clenched around Evan‟s shaft as he thrust, and ecstasy burst through her as Dylan sent her over. She cried out, calling their names as Dylan pleasured her. Evan felt her internal muscles lock around him, pulse, milk his shaft in delicious waves. His arm tightened around her waist. “Don‟t stop,” he groaned to Dylan, knowing Dylan knew how to keep her there on the edge, trembling, flexing around his throbbing member. “God, Lily, I love you, I love this.” So tight, so sweet. Her silken sheath closed around his cock in pulsing waves. Reluctantly, he withdrew and she whimpered. With a smile he caught her chin, turned her face to look at him. “We‟re not done, love.” Trembling, biting her lip, she grinned shakily and said, “I know, but you feel so good inside me.” He grinned back. “Patience. It‟s Dylan‟s turn. Don‟t move.” This was one of the advantages of the trailer, everything was so close all he had to do was take a few steps. Lily looked at Dylan as he drizzled lubricant over his stiff cock. Her heart lifted. This was the first time he‟d felt well enough to do more than watch since the attack and fire. Dylan smiled to see her look. “It‟s not one of your sauces, Lily,” he said, “but it will have to do.” She smiled back at him and his heart flipped as it always did. “Besides,” he said, and grinned, “this has its advantages.” He slid his lubricated fingers between her thighs, to the delicate tissues between them. Designed to heat, to stimulate, he knew the moment the lubricant started to work. Her eyes widened. Carefully, he slid his fingers inside her. He saw her attention turn inward, to where the heat burned between her lower lips. “Dylan,” she whispered. “Yes, Lily?” He let his lubricant laden fingers dance over her clit. As the heat rushed through her she looked at him. Her breath caught. “Oh my god,” she whispered. “Dylan.” Wiping his fingers on the sheets, he touched her face, looked into her eyes. “Does it feel good, Lily?” he asked. “It feels incredible,” she whispered, smiled and dropped her lips to his for a kiss. Looking at her, at her soft brown eyes, her smile, his heart shifted again. He cupped her face. “I love you, Lily Cavanaugh.” Lily looked at him, remembering how close they had come to losing him. The days he had spent at the hospital with tubes in him. “I love you too, Dylan,” she said, softly. Her most intimate parts felt as if they were on fire, even her heart. To her relief, shock and gratitude, he moved behind her, his fingers sliding over her, spreading the warming lubricant over her cleft.

She looked at him in the glass, his thick shaft poised between her lower lips. All she could feel was the heat and then Dylan, the broad head of his cock against her pussy. Evan stepped out of the little bathroom to find Lily on her hands and knees on the bed with Dylan behind her. Her eyes were closed in bliss as Dylan pressed his cock against her, pushed steadily, slowly penetrated. He watched Dylan‟s hips shift carefully to move his thick shaft inside her. Leaning a shoulder against the doorframe, he just watched, enjoying the sight of them taking pleasure in each other. He‟d been hard when he‟d pulled out of her and still was. The sight of Dylan taking her, his cock sliding into her channel, had him even harder. In the mirrored window he could see a reflection of Dylan as he worked his cock inside her entrance, his long thick shaft still visible, only the head inside her. It would be the first time Dylan fucked her, took her, since the fire. It was the first time he could. Lily‟s soft brown eyes opened and she smiled to see him standing there watching, her expression openly admiring of the view even as Dylan worked his cock deeper inside her. Her eyelids fluttered a little with pleasure as Dylan thrust steadily into her, his hands on her hips. “Evan,” she whispered. He smiled back, shaking his head in wonder, bent to kiss her. “I do love to watch this, too.” She looked at him, at his cock. Her lips parted and she licked them. God, he loved her. “Will you suck me, Lily?” He teased her lips with the broad mushroom head of his shaft. Looking up at him, she smiled. Stroking her hair, he smiled again as her lips parted and she took his cock, drew the broad head in, his hard erection slipping deeper into her hot mouth as she sucked on him. Evan groaned as he held her head. The feel of her mouth around him was always amazing, to feel her suck on him made his cock throb, made it ache sweetly. Her lips tightened around him as she sucked, took his shaft deeper. He closed his eyes and savored the lush velvety feel of it. He loved to fuck her mouth, to feel her suck him. For a moment he had to struggle to hold onto control. Dylan groaned a little. He looked up to see Dylan watching. Dylan‟s gaze locked on the sight of Evan‟s cock as it slid between Lily‟s lips, as he worked his own cock in her tight pussy. He loved to watch Evan fuck her mouth, loved to have her suck on him. He held Lily‟s hips tightly, worked his cock inside her channel to make her moan and smiled when she did, knowing what the vibration of it would feel like around Evan‟s shaft. He looked at their reflections, at his cock as he drove it into Lily‟s sweet channel, at Evan‟s long shaft sliding in and out of her mouth, while between them Lily trembled and her full breasts swayed. She was impaled between them, a cock in her mouth, another in her pussy. Each thrusting. She moaned softly as he pressed deeper into her. He loved the feel of that too, when she sucked on him. The vibration of each moan, each groan was sweet delicious torture. It had been a long time since he‟d seen that, it seemed. Although not the first time she‟d sucked him.

More than once the nurses had been summoned as his heart rate quickened from Lily‟s lips around his cock, swallowing quickly as he came, sucking every last bit of the evidence from him. Her lovely face had looked completely innocent when the nurses arrived. Personally, he thought that was part of the reason he‟d healed so quickly, Lily‟s breathing lessons. His hands on her hips, smiling, Dylan fucked her, slowly, carefully, each thrust driving her mouth onto Evan‟s cock. Looking into the mirror-like windows, it was incredible to watch what they did to her. It was even more so to feel it. Evan loved it. She whimpered softly, sucking on him each time Dylan drew back. “Dylan,” Evan groaned. Drawing back, Dylan smiled and drizzled a little more of the heated lubricant onto his cock as he thrust into her, excitement racing through him. More lubricant covered his thumb. He pushed it against the tight sphincter of her ass. She moaned. Unrelenting he pressed and she moaned around Evan‟s cock, tried to resist the invasion but resistance was futile. He breached her and she groaned, deeply. Evan looked at him as his muscles tightened. With a smile Dylan worked his thumb inside her. She nearly wailed with need. He withdrew his thumb and Lily moaned, her hips bucking. Pleasure coursed through her. The warming lubricant was driving her insane, the heat stimulated her clit, her pussy. To feel Dylan‟s cock as it pressed against her ass was maddening. It was as if she were in heat, all she wanted was for them to take her, both of them. Her pussy ached, her tight channel flexed, throbbed. She was nearly whining with need. As Evan watched, Dylan pressed his cock to Lily‟s dark channel. He looked up at Evan as she gasped. Evan nodded. For the first time since the attack, smiling in anticipation, Dylan pushed the broad head of his cock against Lily‟s sweet white ass. His eyelids fluttered as he drew her cheeks apart. She whimpered and wailed, eager for him. “Dylan,” she moaned. With a nod, Dylan pushed his broad head of his cock against that tight sphincter, felt it breach her, the size of it driving a deep moan from her. Slowly, deliberately, with a care for his healing lungs, his ribs, he pushed his long shaft into her until the head of his cock penetrated her, possessed her. Moaning, she shifted. “Please, Dylan.” “Please what, Lily?” She whimpered. “More.” He looked at Evan, who smiled back. Dylan drove his cock deep into Lily‟s sweet ass. Moaning deeply, she shifted, thrust her hips back at him, but he held them still despite her soft cries of frustration. He sank back against the head of the bed with a care for his nearly healed ribs, drawing Lily with him as Evan steadied her.

She nearly sobbed with need. Dylan pushed his legs against hers to open her. Lily‟s own weight drove his cock deeper into her ass as he settled. She moaned, deeply, quivered with the thick delicious invasion as his legs spread hers and his hands came up to squeeze her breasts, play with her nipples. She looked as Evan stretched out between her thighs with a smile. “I need to work on my manual dexterity,” he said, with a grin. “Make sure that my hands are back in good condition.” His fight with Bob had broken a few bones but his hands were long healed and they all knew it. Lily gave him a look but then he teased and played with the delicate tissues between her legs and all thought vanished. His long, deft fingers toyed with her, gently teased her clit, traced her lower lips. She loved his hands, loved what they did to her, and now with Dylan‟s cock buried so deep in her ass, they made her crazy. Clever fingers tapped lightly on her clit, stroked her labia, parted them, slid between them just a little as Dylan fucked her ass. Each time she tightened, Dylan groaned and his fingers tightened on her nipples. Bliss washed through her in waves to gather deep in her belly. She could feel his thick member swell inside her and she moaned as a rush of pleasure swept through her. She felt Evan‟s fingers part her, expose her pulsing clit, her aching pussy. He blew gently on those tender tissues and she mewled. Then he lowered his mouth, sipped at her throbbing bud and she moaned. Evan licked her, sucked on her cleft, that throbbing bud above it. Each motion sent a hot spurt of pleasure through her while his tongue slipped around that sensitive nub. She felt his fingers slide up inside her pussy as Dylan‟s hips drove his cock harder and harder into her ass, pushing her against Evan‟s mouth as he suckled on her. She was so close. Wailing, she begged, “Please, Evan.” With a smile, he sucked, his fingers teased and sent her up, over. Crying out, Lily nearly came, her body tightened around Dylan‟s cock. Dylan‟s hands closed around her breasts, teased her nipples. Knowing her ways, she felt Evan ran his tongue around her folds. “Evan,” she whispered. “Dylan. Please.” She no longer knew what she wanted as Evan slipped his fingers inside her pussy as he sucked her clit. With a soft cry she felt the pleasure gather again. Dylan knew Evan was using Lily to pleasure him. He also knew she didn‟t mind a bit. Neither did he as her tight channel closed around him, as she cried out with each flick of Evan‟s against her sweet bud. She whimpered, wailed, as she sank deeper onto his shaft until he was balls deep in her, his thick cock buried in her. It was incredible. He had missed this so much while he‟d been recovering. Looking over her shoulder, he watched Evan suck on her clit, his eyes closed in pleasure. Just the sight of it was enough to send a rush through him. Too much of a rush, he discovered. “Fuck. Evan, Lily,” Dylan growled, “I can‟t hold on, I‟m going to come.”

At Dylan‟s words Evan suddenly drew on her, hard sucking pulls on Lily‟s clit, fingers buried deep, curled to stroke inside her pussy. Pleasure swelled inside her, she trembled on the edge with a cry. Then she tumbled over as Evan surged up her body, drove his rigid, throbbing shaft deep into her pussy as Dylan rammed his cock hard into her ass. She cried out to find her aching, empty channel filled with Evan. Every muscle in her body locked as ecstasy erupted through her, as pleasure streaked through every limb and she went taut, trembling wildly, helplessly as it swallowed her up. All she was aware of was them, was Evan and Dylan as they thrust inside her. They both drove into her, rode her as she came, as they came inside her, Dylan first with a shout, his hot cum filling her ass, growling her name in her ear. Propped on one arm, Evan drove deeply into her pussy and every muscle locked ecstasy hammered through him as he came too. Burying his hand in her hair, curling his hand beneath her head, he claimed her mouth even as his hips thrust and his cock pumped the last spurts of his pleasure into her. Carefully, he and Dylan eased her between them, curled close around her. Still cradling her head, Evan looked deep into her eyes. He took in every sweet feature of her face. Incredible. His nightmare was over, his dream had just begun. “I love you, Lily Cavanaugh,” he said. Smiling, Lily reached up to touch his face. With a sigh of satisfaction, smiling, Dylan took his turn to kiss her. “I love you too, Lily.” Someone pounded on the door of the trailer. Lily wasn‟t the only one who jumped. “TIME,” shouted Dylan‟s production assistant. Evan roared. “FUCK! Damn it.” “Well,” Dylan said in disgust, “that‟s a buzz kill.” Lily glanced at Evan, then Dylan and tried to smother a giggle. His fury gone as quickly as her laugh, shaking his head, smiling, Evan stood to give both her and Dylan a hand up. Clearly reluctant to let her go, he wrapped her in her dressing gown and gave her a quick kiss. “You‟d better get going,” he said, before giving her a sharp swat on the butt to send her on her way. She gave him a mock glare. “Why do you two always do that?” “Because we like the feel of it,” Dylan answered, dressing quickly. “You‟ve got a great ass.” “Thank you,” she said, “I think.” She gave them both a quick kiss back before they left Evan to change into his own clothes. Dylan escorted her inside the building to her changing room, looking up at the magnificent façade of the new restaurant in satisfaction as they walked beneath it and through the broad batwing doors. Behind them fans called her name. Dylan knew she‟d go outside to them when this was all over to sign autographs and pose for pictures as they hugged her while she smiled. It was safe now he knew, but every time she did it, a part of him worried. Would always worry. Once she was in the hands of makeup and wardrobe he hurried off to get the show on the road, calling directions to the staff.

***** Watching on the monitor, Lily saw the camera close on the incredible lines of Evan‟s face, the sheer beauty of it, his expression mischievous bordering on wicked as he smiled. Dressed as a riverboat gambler, the grin and the look suited him well, lending him a sexy piratical air. “Welcome,” he said, “to a new venture for Cooking with Class. Our first restaurant in Las Vegas.” With Taylor‟s still under construction after the explosion had leveled it, they had decided to move forward with another project, one that had been on the Evan‟s back burner. It took less time to renovate than rebuild, so they had bought a restaurant on the Strip. His sweeping gesture took in the brass and the glass, the thick velvet draperies, the tassels, the flocked wallpaper and thick Victorian-style carpet, all reminiscent of a bygone era of the American West, with its gunfighters and gold rushes. That expansive gesture finished at the stair. “Welcome,” Evan repeated as Lily appeared at the top of the stair on cue, wearing Victorian dress, but with her hair loose in deep styled waves, her lips painted a deep red, like an actress from that day. The look suited her, as did the dress with its tight bodice pushing her breasts up, the narrow waist, the touch of a bustle. She looked beautiful, elegant, incredible. There were times when Evan still couldn‟t believe she was here, that she was his, his and Dylan‟s. Evan looked up, smiled. For a moment their eyes met. Her expression grew soft, her smile sweet and full of love. In that moment he had never loved her more. He lifted his hand to her as she stepped gracefully down the stairs to take it. “Welcome,” he said, “to Lily Cavanaugh‟s.”

##### About the author As an old favorite author used to say “I‟m five foot two, blonde-haired and blue eyed, the rest is subject to change without notice.” Currently Valerie is happily ensconced in the wilds of central Ohio farm country with two dogs, two cats and an African clawed frog for company as she writes. The frog doesn‟t say much. You can contact her through her webpages: www.valeriedouglasbooks.com www.vjdevereauxbooks.com Other Novels by Valerie Douglas The Otherling series: The Coming Storm―A Epic Fantasy―in the tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien‟s the Lord of the Rings trilogy, comes the epic tale of Elon of Aerilann, Elven swordmaster, his true-friend Colath, the archer Jalila and the wizard Jareth, as they, with the aid of Ailith Heir of Riverford, try to discover why the creatures of the borderlands do battle with them, and why? A Convocation of Kings―sequel to The Coming Storm. One war is over, but fifty years later another begins just as Elon is reunited once again with his lost love. Is it coincidence she has returned just as there are signs an old enemy has returned as well? Heart of the Gods―When archaeologist Ky Farrar starts in search of the ancient Tomb, he awakens its lethal, and lovely, guardian. Both quickly discover Ky isn‟t the only one in search of the tomb and the danger to the world that lies within it. The key to which is the Heart of the Gods. Servant of the Gods―The beginning of the story.

Romance: Picture Perfect―Under the pseudonym of C. A. Calloway, reclusive Anne Sheridan is a world-renowned artist who has found refuge in her cottage on the Carolina coast. Until her property comes to the notice of Michael Kelley, CEO of Kelley Resorts International. Suddenly Anne finds herself in the middle of a bidding war involving millions of dollars. Enough money to drive some people to kill. Lucky Charm―When private investigator Matt Morrison‟s best friend Bill is murdered, all evidence seems to point at his company, but Matt‟s every attempt at entry is thwarted. Violently.

When pretty Ariel O‟Donnell comes unexpectedly to his rescue, he resolves to keep her out of what is clearly a dangerous situation. Unfortunately, it seems that Ariel is already involved and the forces set in motion by Bill‟s death are closing around her. The Millersburg Series Irish Fling―Ali was the smart one, but brains didn‟t stop her from crashing and burning. A desire to connect with her roots takes her to Ireland, and a chance meeting with internet mogul Aidan O‟Connell. Even brilliant Ali with her nearly photographic memory doesn‟t see the danger lurking when she sees the wrong thing. Dirty Politics―Returning to her hometown, practical Cam Kenyon discovers that teenage crush Noah Denton is running for D.A. When she discovers that his opponent is going to indulge in dirty politics, she throws her support to him, accidentally resurrecting an old enemy. Director’s Cut―When bad-boy director Jack Tyler comes to town to rediscover his passion with the local community theater group, teacher and theater geek Molly has to decide whether to take a chance on him. When his past catches up with him and he seems to be returning to his old bad habits, she has to decide whether to fight his demons alongside him. Two Up―Sculptor and welder Jesse was always the wild child, her only family her three friends. A chance meeting with novelist Mitch Donovan gives her a chance to make a new life. For Mitch meeting Jesse gives him new inspiration, but that new inspiration comes at a terrifying price.

As V. J. Devereaux―available from Ellora‟s Cave Publishing Night Moves Cherry’s Jubilee Special Delivery In the Flesh Demon’s Kiss